Gun Lanciai (born Gunvor Westerberg; 10 November 1920 – 15 March 2013), was a Swedish-Finnish sculptor. She was also the illustrator of the Swedish-language school book '' Vi på Solgård'', for reading for the lower levels in Finland by the suggestion of her lifelong friend the writer Solveig von Schoultz. Gun Lanciai lived most of her life in Sweden (1955–2004), was a Finnish citizen until 1965, and from then on a Swedish citizen.

Biography

Gunvor Westerberg was born on 10 November 1920, in Borgå (

Porvoo Porvoo (; ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located on the south coast of the country, on the Gulf of Finland. Porvoo lies in the eastern part of the Uusimaa region. The population of Porvoo is approximately , while the Porvoo sub-region, sub-re ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. She made her first sculpture, a

faun The faun (, ; , ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology. Originally fauns of Roman mythology were ghosts ( genii) of rustic places, lesser versions of their chief, the god Faunus. Before t ...

in clay at the age of 13 in 1934. She was accepted at the art academy of Ateneum in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

in 1939 for further education in sculpture and ceramics, which progress was interrupted by the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

. She married the half-Italian Aurelio Lanciai in 1942, Finnish junior champion in tennis, and in 1952 moved with him and four children to San Isidro in Argentine, where she found a new teacher in the sculptor Esdras Gianella (1916–2010). At the same time another Swedish sculptor lived in San Isidro, the prima ballerina of Paris Carina Ari, who left dancing at the age of 42 to instead commit herself to sculpturing. Gun Lanciai resumed sculpturing in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

upon her return to Scandinavia in 1955 after the fall of Perón. She specialised in children's figures (

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

), portraits in

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

, some

bronze sculpture Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as w ...

s, musicians in plaster and steel wiring, sown applications and paintings. She gave regular exhibitions from 1968 in Sweden, Finland, Canada and Denmark, in 1972 in both Finland and Canada. In 1976 she had a solo exhibition in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

where she exhibited both sculptures, graphics and water colours. She moved to

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

with her husband in 1977 but lived her last nine years in the home of her son Michael close to Elsinore in Denmark. In 2013 she gave her last exhibition one week before her sudden death from heart failure and pneumonia on 5 March 2013 in

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; ), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a coastal city in northeastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 63,953 on 1 January 2025, making it the 23rd most populated municipality in Denmark. Helsin ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. She was the niece of the architect and artist Harry Röneholm of Finland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lanciai, Gun 1920 births 2013 deaths 20th-century Finnish women artists 21st-century Finnish women artists Finnish women sculptors Swedish women sculptors People from Porvoo Swedish-speaking Finns Finnish emigrants to Sweden Swedish expatriates in Denmark Finnish expatriates in Argentina People from Helsingør 20th-century Swedish women