Timo Sarpaneva Collection, Museum of Art and Design, Helsinki

Timo Sarpaneva Collection
Museum of Art and Design, Helsinki
June 14 - September 1, 2002

Designer/sculptor Timo Sarpaneva (born 1926) is an internationally famed figure, a much-awarded and admired powerhouse of Finnish design. Objects designed by him are found in many museum collections in Europe, America and Australia. In addition to glass, the materials he uses include wood, metal, textiles and porcelain.

In 1995, the Museum of Art and Design received a retrospective Timo Sarpaneva collection comprising some 400 items. This is a comprehensive cross-section of his work, showing the outlines of Finnish design over a period of fifty years. The Timo Sarpaneva story is also the story of Finnish industry, which has creditably utilised the designer’s input as a factor of success.

The earliest example is an embroidered tea cosy, dating from 1950, which won a silver medal at the 1951 Milan Triennale. Timo Sarpaneva’s creations for the Iittala Glassworks in the 1950s – the Hiidenhelmi and Hiidennyrkki sculptures, Kajakki, Lansetti, Sleeping Birds and Bird Bottles as well as his i-glass and coloured flatware - are much sought after by collectors. His iron pots and pans for Rosenlew in the 1960s are still part of the basic kitchen hardware, as are his steel dishes and jugs for Opa Oy. Also familiar are his Finlandia vases, Archipelago sculptures, and his porcelain and ceramic tableware designed for Rosenthal, not to mention his Claritas series from the 1980s and Marcel from the 1990s. Sarpaneva won worldwide fame with the Milan Triennales of 1954 and 1957, the Lunning Award in 1956, and the choice the same year by House Beautiful of a glass sculpture by Sarpaneva as "The Most Beautiful Object of the Year". He was granted the title of Professor in 1976 and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Art and Design in 1993.

After drawing people, scenery and farm animals as a child, he was soon seen as a budding artist. He was enrolled at the Institute of Industrial Arts in the 1940s. One of the ways he worked his way through studies was in the logging camps of North Karelia, where he was promoted to second foreman of his work gang. He says he is greatly proud of this achievement. He was a student of the legendary Arttu Brummer and later became his assistant and lifelong friend. After graduating as a graphic artist in 1948, Sarpaneva designed exhibitions, display windows and graphics for A. Ahlstrom Corporation, but he wanted to work with glass and was thus able to design "whatever he wanted". In the 1960s, he painted instinctively, like a child, using the fabric-printing machines he had tamed as giant brushes to create the Ambiente fabrics at the Finlayson-Forssa works.

Dan Sundell describes Timo Sarpaneva (Millenium meum, Helsinki 1999): "he is an exceptional man, a man who has wandered through time, through centuries. He was born with a curious prismatic vision that can turn matter into beauty. He also posses a rare capacity for awe, for worshipping beauty."

MUSEUM OF ART AND DESIGN, HELSINKI
Korkeavuorenkatu 23, 00130 Helsinki
www.designmuseum.fi