a pair of stools, executed by Reino Huotari, Finland, 1981, for the Finnish Glass Museum.
Stained pine, leater seat. Length 65 cm, width 50 cm, height 45 cm. Seat height ca. 35 cm.
Wear. Scratches and stains.
Marianne Aav (ed.), "Tapio Wirkkala: Eye, Hand and Thought", Taideteollisuusmuseo 2000, p. 381.
In 1981 the renovation of the old Riihimäki Glassworks to house the Finnish Glass Museum was completed The redesigning of the building and its interiors was the work of Tapio Wirkkala, who also designed the museum's permanent exhibition.
Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985) rose to world fame in the early 1950s following the breakthrough of Finnish industrial design. He was an exceptionally prolific artist who mastered almost any material and designed both everyday objects and unique works of art.
Wirkkala graduated as a decorative carver from Taideteollisuuskeskuskoulu (the School of Art and Design) in 1936, after succeeding in various design competitions, he began to gain a reputation as a pioneer of glass and silver. One of Wirkkala's most important partners in the silver industry was Kultakeskus, whose production he renewed in the 1950s. During the three decades of cooperation, Wirkkala designed a large number of products for Kultakeskus, many of which were forged by hand.
Tapio Wirkkala worked for several companies simultaneously on both serial production and more individual design work. Despite the variety of design tasks, certain themes can be seen repeated in his production. Wirkkala drew inspiration from the landscapes of Lapland, where he lived with his family for part of the year. The busy artist did not compromise on his travels to Lapland under any circumstances, and he travelled to the north regularly to explore nature and seek inspiration. The forms of snow and the melting ice was the inspiration behind many of his glass objects, and the shapes of boats and leaves came to serve as an inspiration for several silver objects, such as the TW9 silver bowl, which was commissioned and handcrafted for Kultakeskus.
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