GLASS

 

The most poetic interpreters of the material world are those who successfully translate nature's difficult relationship with matter. The earlier work of international Finnish glass artists Tapio Wirkkala and Timo Sarpaneva best represent the attempt to use the difficult-to-tame material and fuse it with the topic of living well within a harsh and demanding environment. The respect for both material and theme are expressed through the hand cared sculpturing and minimal industrial intrusion to the process. As glass is the material most sympathetic to both light and darkness, the results are objects which seemingly create light from wherever they are placed.

Timo Sarpaneva (1926-2006), frequent international exhibitor, beginning with the Milan Triennales in the 1950s, was many things including a glass designer, artist and graphic designer. He also designed ceramics, metals, plastics, textiles and clothing. He developed unique processes in the glass arts that literally fused the material to the form of nature. Art glass pieces on exhibit will be from the 1950s - 1980s, from the series’, Blues, Finlandia, Orkidea and other early short-production examples.

Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985) brought Finnish Lapland indoors, creating designs throughout his life for the common European household. His scope of work in the industrial arts is astoundingly prolific working with woods, porcelain, tin, silver, and other metals. But it is his work with glass arts and the factories of Karhula and Iittala that best exhibit his talents at locating and transferring a true and unadorned natural beauty.

Both glass artists exhibited successfully on an international level, collectively winning most of the awards of the Milan Trienniales of the mid-century. Both Sarpaneva and Wirkkala were hugely influential in elevating Finnish design and design schooling to a level still uncompromised today.