The book about Ulla and Gustav Kraitz

The book KRAITZ is about Ulla and Gustav Kraitz. Two artists that are well established in national and international art. In addition to Sweden, they have had exhibitions and commissions with public art works in both New York and San Francisco, as well as in a number of European countries.

Gustav Kraitz is a trained sculptor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. He fled Hungary in 1956 and came to Sweden. In 1960 he met Ulla Stenkvist, a painter trained at Konstfack in Stockholm, and they married the following year. For more than half a century, they have worked together and developed their own as well as an intertwined artistry, where two temperaments are united.

In Förslöv in Skåne, they have their Chinese kiln where ash and air currents create glaze according to a thousand-year-old technique. No one masters this technique like Gustav Kraitz. In their public works, they comprehensively treat the public space as a visual experience, where humans are always included in the whole. The sculptures are usually built up of geometric shapes, which are set against the organic ones. The works are archaic and express something universal, such as the origin of life and its enigma. The sculptures also visualize beauty itself, where life is at the center.

The richly illustrated book provides an in-depth picture of the artistry of the Kraitz couple. The texts are written by Göran Christenson, Gösta Lilja, Jon Johansson, Carl-Johan Olsson, Lennart Rudström and Göran Hermerén. The book is designed by Gabor Palotai.

The concluding chapter tells of one of the highlights of their activities. For 30 years, they have had a vision of an art gallery on the Bjäre Peninsula. On 1 October 2021, this vision was realized when RAVINEN Kulturhus opened in Norrviken in Båstad.

In connection with the book publication, a new exhibition will be shown in the Kraitz Hall. The exhibition is based on the book’s content and shows photos taken by photographer Mikael Bertmar, a film about the book by Gabor Palotai and a sculpture installation by Ulla and Gustav Kraitz.