§ ‡ BERTIL VALLIEN (SWEDISH B.1938-) FOR KOSTA BODA PORTAL signed, engraved 'KOSTA BODA / 8 BVAUN / 969017 / UNIQUE', sand cast glass (32.5cm high x 21cm wide (12.75in high x 8.25in wide)) Footnote: Provenance: A Private European Collection of Studio & Contemporary Glass Bertil Vallien, considered to be Sweden’s most famous glass artist, was born in a small suburb to the north of Stockholm in 1938. Vallien was encouraged by a schoolteacher to pursue an arts education and he began attending evening classes at the Konstfack School of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. At the age of 27, he began a two-year foundation course at the Konstfack’s ceramics department and decided to pursue the arts full-time after completing his military service. Following this, he moved to Los Angeles and joined the HAL Fromholt Ceramics company that sought a young Swedish designer. It was here that Vallien began to design new models and had his own studio where he could focus on his personal practise too. Often deeply symbolic, he considers each piece as an investigation into specific themes with objects often filled with motifs and metaphors, transferring his dreamlike world into his art. Eventually Valliens returned to Sweden to work as a designer at the Afors glass factory. Vallien is highly acclaimed in his field and has received numerous awards including the Prince Eugen Medal for outstanding artistic achievement in 1995 and the Visionaries Award from the American Craft Museum in 2001. His work can be found in important institutions internationally such as the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.