Tone Vigeland
Tone Vigeland (1938-2024) was known as one of the most significant studio jewelry artists of the postwar era. Since the early 1960’s, she exhibited actively and was featured in innumerable arts and crafts surveys internationally. In the years 1995-98, a critically acclaimed retrospective exhibition of her jewelry traveled from Norway to the U.S. and Japan.
In 1996, Galleri Riis presented the first sculpture by Tone Vigeland. Made from countless tiny parts of copper and nickel-plated bronze, it was her first free-standing object. The technique and materials, as well as the stylistic idiom, were derived from her previous work with jewelry, where organic movement of surface and form is obtained through the attachment of numerous components to a mesh or flexible core. Her works, whether jewelry or sculpture, are always characterized by craftmanship and innovative exploration of the properties of the metal, and mostly crafted by her own hands.
In the fall of 2000, Vigeland presented her first large solo exhibition of sculptures at Galleri Riis. The exhibition was comprised of six large sculptures on classic gallery podiums. Strips, tubes and flakes made from lead attached to grids and mesh of plastic or steel gave rise to sensual forms and surfaces in some of the sculptures, and a more rigid, constructed expression in others.
In her following three exhibitions with Galleri Riis (2004 to 2011), Vigeland left the podiums behind and took on the space with simple and delicate works, as well as installations comprising numerous parts, extending from the walls or hanging from the ceiling – playing with, and off, the architecture of the gallery. The materials were steel tubes, rods and piano wire, sometimes with silver joints and fittings. The style was both elegant and monumental.
Vigeland was the Festival Exhibitor at Bergen Kunsthall (2014), arguably Norway’s most important solo exhibition for a living artist, and in 2017 she was honored with a retrospective exhibition at Die Neue Samlung in Munich. In 2022, Vigeland completed her final work, a large freestanding outdoor sculpture in stainless steel and bronze, commissioned by Kistefos Museum in Jevnaker.
Tone Vigeland’s works can be found in the collections of Nasjonalmuseet for Kunst in Oslo, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.
Exhibitions
Biography
Tone Vigeland 1938-2024
Lived and worked in Oslo
EDUCATION
1955 National College of Art, Craft and Design, Oslo
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 Ut i rommet / Sculptures, Installation and Objects, Galleri Riis, Oslo (forthcoming)
2018 Tone Vigeland. Jewelry and Scupture, Dronning Sonja KunstStall, Oslo
2018 Tone Vigeland. Retrospective, Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim, Norway
2017 Tone Vigeland, Jewelry – Object – Sculpture. Pinakothek der Moderne. Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum, Munich
2014 Muster, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway
2010 New Works, Galleri Riis, Oslo
2007 New Works, Galleri Riis, Oslo
2004 Sculpture, Galleri Riis, Oslo
2000 Sculptures, Galleri Riis, Oslo
1996 Object, Galleri Riis, Oslo
1996-1998 The Jewellery of Tone Vigeland 1958-95, Wichita Center for the Arts, Wichita, Kansas, USA; Museé des Arts Décoratifs, Montreál, Canada; Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA; Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design, New York, USA
1995 Tone Vigeland. Jewellery 1958-1995, Kunstindustrimuseet, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo
1983 Artwear, New York, USA
1981 Electrum Gallery, London, UK
1967 Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016 Tendencies 2016, Grand Old Ladies & New Kids on the Block, Galleri F15, Moss, Norway
2015 Poor Art – Rich Legacy. Arte Povera and Parallel Practices 1968–2015, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway
2015 Update, Galleri Riis, Oslo
2014 Preview, Galleri Riis, Oslo
2013 Jan Groth + Tone Vigeland, The Vigeland Museum, Oslo
2012 Craft Spoken Here, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA
2010 Goddesses, Museet for Samtidskunst, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway
2007 Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde-Jewellery from the Helen William Drutt Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA
2005 The Picture of Patronage in the 21st Century: Selections of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
2000 Jan Groth Drawings, Tone Vigeland Sculptures, Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, Aalborg, Denmark
2000 Ornaments from there, Ornaments from here, Incidences, Coincidences, Musée de Design et d’Arts Appliqués Contemporains, Lausanne, Switzerland
1992 IIIéme Triennale du Bijou, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France
1986 International Jewellery Art Exhibition, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
1960 Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
1959-1964 Foreningen Brukskunsts høstmønstring, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, USA
Crafts Gallery, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Banner-Stiftung, Danner-Ritunde. Die Neue Samlung at Piakothek der Modern, München, Germany
Danish Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Oslo Kommune Kunstsamling, Oslo, Norway
Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, Norway
Museene i Sør-Trøndelag, Norway
KORO, Norway
Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim, Norway
National Gallery of Australia, Australia
Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway