Tapio Wirkkala (02.06.1915 – 19.05.1985) is one of the most important Finnish designers who achieved international recognition. He was able to work with all materials: metal, glass, plastic, ceramics, wood, plywood, stone, silver.
His boundless love for nature helped him poeticize the most prosaic objects. Having spent years observing the glaciers of Lapland, he managed to capture the fluidity and transparency of water. He managed to elevate the everyday – be it a vase, a decanter or a Finlandia bottle. He is the author of a series of Finnish banknotes, which were in circulation from 1955 to 1981. His name is associated with the country’s post-war exports: of all the Finnish designers, he was the one who was best known abroad.
It is noticeable from the photographs how, with age, Wirkkala transformed into a bearded spirit from Finnish pagan mythology. This is not surprising: all his life he studied archaic legends, the culture of small settlements and ancient tools. It was important for him to tune in, not to fuss and feel each material: they say that even the masters of Murano (he spent a lot of time on the Venetian island, working for Venini) recognized him as one of their own.
All of Wirkkala’s awards and prizes – the Pro Finland award in 1955, the Grand Prix of the Milan Triennale, the prize of the World Fair in Brussels (1957) and the golden Obelisk Domus in Milan (1963) – were received precisely for penetrating into the essence of the material.
Tapio Wirkkala was born in the city of Hanko, in the south of Finland. From childhood, he watched his father at work: he was an artist-craftsman. Having mastered the techniques of working with wood and metal, Tapio entered the Helsinki School of Arts and Crafts.
After finishing school and the difficult war years, Wirkkala married Linnea Ruth Brück, a Finnish artist, designer and specialist in artistic ceramics, in 1945. She later became a famous figure in Finnish modernism: her pointillist relief map “Sunny City” still decorates the Helsinki City Hall, and her complex relief “Ice Drift” – the presidential residence Mäntyniemi. She worked for almost 50 years in the art department of the Arabia company. Tapio and Ruth had two children: a son became an interior designer, and a daughter was involved in modern art. The family traveled a lot and the spouses did not quarrel, despite noticeable stylistic differences in their work.
In 1946, the Iittala company organized a glass competition. Wirkkala, having become the winner (he shared first place with Kai Frank), remained working for it for the rest of his life. As art director, from 1947 to 1985 Wirkkala created more than 400 objects and collections for Iittala: they were later refined using modern technology. However, at the time of the creation of the most popular series in the history of the company, Ultima Thule, no other methods existed except traditional ones.
Wirkkala dreamed of conveying the melting of the glaciers of Lapland in glass: he endlessly observed natural phenomena. At first, it took many months to cut out a wooden form (the very first form has survived to this day), then thousands of hours to perfect the technique of blown glass. And the effect of melting ice in glass was achieved.
By the mid-50s, Wirkkala’s popularity was growing, and various companies dreamed of collaborating with him. The company Soinne & Kni approached him. For over thirty years (since 1956) he was commissioned to design by the famous company Rosenthal, and he worked even longer for the Finnish company N. Westerback / Kultakestus. He also spent a year (1955-1956) collaborating with the legendary American studio of Raymond Loewy – Raymond Loewy Associates. He devoted three years to teaching: from 1951 to 1954 he was the art director of the Institute of Industrial Design in Helsinki.
In 1966 he founded his own studio in Helsinki: Design Tapio Wirkkala, and at the same time began collaborating with the famous Venetian company Venini. It is amazing how he managed to alternate intensive foreign work in Germany, Mexico and Italy with many months of seclusion – he loved silence.
The Puukoo utility knife, designed by Wirkkala based on traditional Lappish knives. The model enjoyed great popularity and is still sold at online auctions.
