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Since 1999 Sam Kaufman's eye for objects with beauty, craftsmanship, and historical significance has made his Los Angeles gallery feel like a small museum—curated by an eccentric man described by Dwell magazine as “the walking encyclopedia”. Spanning decades, nations, and multiple fields of collecting, the eclectic mix shares one thing in common: the irrepressible enthusiasm of Sam Kaufman. With curiosity, knowledge, and a taste for the whimsical, Sam has traveled the world collecting expressive, compelling, and unusual things. The selection offered here represents the breadth of his interests. Every artifact has an accompanying narrative, a twist of history, or a rare detail that gives it a life of its own and makes it outstanding
Hans Hedberg 1917–2007
Hans Hedberg was born in Sweden in 1917 and lived most of his life in southern France. He is known for his large-scale ceramic works and installations. His style is marked by textural, mottled surfaces, joyful colors and reoccurring motifs of fruits and birds eggs, depicted on a monumental scale. An avid traveler, after serving in World War II, Hedberg studied at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen and the Académie Colarossi in Paris. His initial artistic inclinations were toward painting but he became seriously interested in the ceramic traditions he encountered while visiting Capri, Italy in 1947. He studied at the Instituto d’Arte della Ceramica in Faenza for two years, after which he established a studio in Biot, France in 1949, not far from Picasso's ceramic studio in Vallauris. As Hedberg’s reputation grew, he entertained such artists as Fernand Léger, Marc Chagall, and Jean Cocteau. He was progressive in his use of plaster molds, experimental glazing techniques and the impressive scale at which he worked. His imaginative and alluring ceramics are held in such prestigious collections as The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Musee National de Ceramique, Sèvres, France, the royal collections of Sweden, Morocco and Spain, along with a dedicated museum for his oeuvre in Örnsköldsviks, Sweden. Hedberg passed away in 2007 in Cannes, France.
