Pair of vases with a cylindrical shape, with spiral filigree workmanship, designed by Tapio Wirkkala and made by Venini in the 1970s.

Ø cm 8 h cm 27

Tapio Veli Ilmari Wirkkala (Hanko, 2 June 1915 – Helsinki, 19 May 1985) was a Finnish designer and sculptor.

Come i his two brothers, Wirkkala si appassiona immediately to the arts, thanks also to his father Ilmari, cemetery architect, and his mother Selma, a wood carver. After six years of secondary school, Wirkkala enrolled in the school of applied arts, specializing in decorative sculpture..

After the war, Wirkkala worked in an advertising agency and took part in design competitions such as the one for the Iittala company, for which he began working in 1946., a collaboration that will last for the next 30 years.

In the meantime Wirkkala took part in and won other competitions: in 1947 he designed some banknotes issued by the Bank of Finland, which were in circulation until the 1980s, and created the stamp for the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games. Also famous is the plywood leaf, created in 1951 and used for the American exhibition Design in Scandinavia in 1954, and the series of Paadarin jää sculptures for which he won the Milan Triennale in 1960.

In Italy Wirkkala frequents Gio Ponti, Luciano Baldessari and Paolo Venini; from 1966 to 1972 he collaborated with Vetreria Venini, and from 1957 he created the Century, Composition, Kurve, Polygon, Taille and Variation lines for Rosenthal.

Wirkkala's works are exhibited at the MoMA in New York and at the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Wirkkala died in Helsinki on 19 May 1985.

In 2003, a foundation dedicated to Tapio Wirkkala and his wife Rut Bryk, buried with him, was created with the aim of maintaining the collection and promoting Finnish design.

Source - Wikipedia