Hannah Ryggen
Hannah Ryggen (1894 to 1970) was a Swedish-Norwegian textile artist born in Malmö, whose main artistic career unfolded in Ørland and Trondheim. She made tapestry a medium for both personal experience and international politics.
From painting to tapestry
Initially a teacher, she studied painting in the evenings. During the 1920s she chose weaving as her medium. Life on the smallholding in Ørland and contemporary wars entered the same pictorial world: intimate everyday experience could stand alongside political protest.
Her work encompassed the entire sequence from wool and yarn to the finished image. Ryggen carded, spun, dyed with plants and wove without a prepared cartoon. Figures developed directly in the weave, making the relationship between material, colour and subject part of the creative process itself.
Documented works and techniques
Nøkken of 1923 in the National Museum is handwoven tapestry with a linen warp and wool weft, 52.5 cm high and 102.5 cm wide. It documents an early tapestry considerably smaller than her later monumental works.
For Gru of 1936, the museum records both wool and linen in the weft, with a linen warp. This specific combination reminds us that a general description of “wool tapestries” does not cover every Ryggen work.
Henders bruk of 1949 has a plant-dyed wool weft and linen warp. The museum gives 192.5 × 208.5 cm and interprets the subject through hands used for war and destruction. Acquired in 1953, it made Ryggen the first textile artist purchased by the National Gallery.
Political art and public spaces
Kunstnernes Hus documents its 1953 exhibition, which included Etiopia of 1935 and 6. oktober 1942. The tapestries demonstrate how weaving could address historical events and ideological conflicts while being experienced as visual art within an exhibition.
Vi lever på en stjerne was made for the government quarter's high-rise building in 1958. KORO treats it as part of the history carried forward into the new quarter. The commission reveals another aspect of tapestry: an independent artwork could acquire a lasting role within architecture's public spaces.
Original tapestry, reproduction and condition
A photographic reproduction of a familiar tapestry is not a tapestry executed by Ryggen. For a textile, document warp, weft, weave structure, size and mounting. Any signature, weaver, workshop or publisher information must concern the particular object. Biography or similarity of subject cannot authenticate an unprovenanced tapestry, sketch or print.
Look for light fading, wear, broken warp threads, insect damage, stains and earlier repairs. Record the reverse and hanging system without unnecessarily dismantling or cleaning a fragile work. Museum and exhibition labels, receipts and old photographs may illuminate its ownership history. A book reference must match the work's technique and dimensions as well as its subject.
Read more about artist signatures, provenance and ownership history.
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