Ann-Mari Forsberg
1916-1992

Ann-Mari Forsberg was a pupil of Barbro Nilsson at Konstfack [University College of Arts, Crafts and Design] in Stockholm. She joined the workshop in Båstad in 1943 and, together with her teacher and Marianne Richter, she helped to breathe new life into Märta Måås-Fjetterström AB. She produced simple but highly original patterns using contrasting shapes, for example in the rug "Svartbroka" [Piebald] or "Röd crocus" [Red Crocus] which is in the collections of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

In 1953 she was appointed lecturer in the textiles department at Konstfack. Her own embroidery is notable for its imaginative playfulness, as are some of her woven tapestries. "Bikupan" [The Beehive] from 1959 is a whirring chaos of flowers and bees in mainly orangey-yellow colours. The rounded form of the beehive appears in a lighter shade among the flowers and the bees.

Ann-Mari Forsberg's father was a pharmacist. In 1964 she produced a magnificent design called "Apoteket Rosendoften" [Scent of Roses Pharmacy]. There is a version of it in the entrance hall to the main block at the hospital in Lund. The pharmacist can be seen with his curly white hair in the middle of the tapestry surrounded by imaginatively shaped pots, jugs and flowers. Pink, red and blue are the dominant colours in this busy throng.

"Rödbroka", rölakan [flat weave]
designed by Ann-Mari Forsberg in 1944.