Rosenthal Porcelain Loon Tapio Wirkkala Gold

The designer and sculptor Tapio Wirkkala was born in Hanko, Finland, in 1915. In the 1920s, he and his family moved to Helsinki, where he studied sculpture at the Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1933 to 1936. He became known primarily for his furniture and glass artworks, and his works were quite successful. He designed several wooden bowls, plywood objects, silver pieces (including for Christofle), pavilions for exhibitions (including the installations for Finland at the Milan Triennials in 1951 and 1954, for which he won the Grand Prix both times), and everyday objects such as banknotes and cutlery. During his career, Wirkkala also designed glass for Venini and porcelain for Rosenthal. His earlier works are characterized primarily by the utilitarian beauty of Finnish functionalism, but from the early 1950s onward, he was inspired by natural forms.

In 1946, Wirkkala entered a glass design competition organized by Iittala and shared first prize with Kaj Franck. In 1947, he became artistic director of the Finnish glass factory Iittala Glassworks, and his partnership with the company lasted his life. From 1955 to 1956, Wirkkalla worked for industrial designer Raymond Loewy in New York. In 1956, he became artistic director of A-Studio, a design studio owned by A. Ahlström in Helsinki. In 1966, he opened his own studio, Design Tapio Wirkkala.

Wirkkala's work has been widely exhibited and is part of prestigious collections around the world, including those of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Bavarian National Museum in Munich, the Nationalmuseum Stockholm, the Royal Museum in Edinburgh and the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York.

Wirkkala died in Helsinki in 1985.