At Øregaard Museum in Hellerup north of Copenhagen the exhibition Salto The Master of Stoneware recently opened. A large collection of works by the international renowned Danish artist Axel Salto (1889 – 1961) has been gathered from museums and private collections showing various aspects of his oeuvre. Salto graduated from The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1914 as a painter. His inspiration was found in nature and Greek mythology and he exhibited with among others the Danish painter Vilhelm Lundstrøm.
In the mid-1920s Salto began working with porcelain for Bing & Grøndal. He exhibited works in glazed porcelain at the 1925 Paris Exhibition but later favorized stoneware as material. Salto worked closely with different workshops, acknowledging the knowledge of the potters and specialists. His ceramic works are categorized in three different styles, The Rifled, The Budding and The Sprouting. The decorations started out being geometrical patterns, continued by an organic style, with significant reflections on the power of nature ending with an almost expressionistic abstraction of natural elements. Other three-dimensional works show his interest in Greek mythology and animals, especially deer, which directly connect his graphic work with the ceramic. The exhibition connection the different paths of Salto’s work and shows a focused and dedicated artist balancing the interaction of nature and culture.
