Birgit Skiöld 1923 - 1982

Here at Fermynwoods Contemporary Art we hold the archives of Birgit Skiöld and her work can be viewed at the gallery. Skiöld was an influential printmaker and teacher in this country and abroad, particularly in Sweden, Japan, the USA and Canada. She was born in Stockholm in 1923, where she studied at the Konstfackskolan, and then settled in England in 1948. She studied at the Anglo-French Art Centre, in Paris at L'Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, and at Regent Street Polytechnic.

In 1958 she started the first print workshop in England, providing facilities for artists. This was in Charlotte Street in the basement of the house of artist Adrian Heath.

Skiöld was a visiting lecturer in printmaking at Bradford, Hammersmith and Wolverhampton Colleges of Art, and a visiting teacher of lithography at University of Wisconsin in 1964. She was a member of the Senefelder Group and their secretary from 1958 to 1960. She was also a founder member of the Printmakers' Council and their chair from 1972 to 1974, as well as member of Grafiska Sallskapet, Sweden, and of AIA. She was instrumental in getting the British International Print Biennale off the ground and sowed the seeds for the International Hand Papermaking Conference held in Kyoto in 1983.

She took part in international mixed shows and had several solo exhibitions, including at the Curwen Gallery, 1968, and Oxford Gallery, Oxford, 1971. In 1970 her Chimes, relief etchings with seven poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (published by Circle Press Publications), won the award of the Aigle d'Or (Prix de la Bibliophilie).

Birgit Skiöld died in 1982 and there were memorial shows at Cartwright Art Gallery, Bradford and Camden Arts Centre, London in 1984. The Victoria and Albert Museum, Arts Council England and the Grafikens Hus in Sweden hold her work.