Alvar Aalto exhibition at Design Museum is a major summer cultural event
By Hannu Pöppönen
This could be something great!
The Design Museum is making a surprising and fresh opening of the summer of culture with an exhibition of the design work of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (1898 - 1976).
The visitor is first treated to a sculpture that is about as tall as a scrub brush, with large ears and eyes whose the shape is familiar from Aalto's Savoy Vase. The statue, from Aalto’s home in the Helsinki district of Munkkiniemi, is by American sculptor Alexander Calder. It dates back to 1937, and is a whimsical vision of the Finnish architect.
Alvar Aalto’s design is so familiar to Finns that one might not think that it would be possible to get any new points of view out of it.
Nevertheless, the exhibition, Alvar Aalto - Master of Finnish Functionalism on two floors of the Design Museum, manages to bring out the career of Alvar Aalto - as well as that of his wife Aino - in a versatile and interesting manner.
The Design Museum does not focus on the main icons of Aalto’s design. Even his famous Paimio chair, which he designed for the Paimio Sanatorium - Aalto’s first significant work of functionalist design - is put to the side, lest it detract attention from Calder’s humoristic statue.
However, on the upper floor the visitor can find a large volume of the furniture that made this master of bending wood famous.
Alvar Aalto’s design has never been displayed as extensively as it is at the exhibition. At the Design Museum this is done separately from his architectural works, which makes it easier to examine Aalto’s development as a designer - his road from furniture with influences of classicism, via art deco, to functionalism, and to the time that followed.
In addition to the museum’s own collections, material has been made available by the Aalto Museum, as well as from private collections. The exhibition includes prototypes that have rarely, if ever, been shown to the public, and which patch the gaps in the great story.
Even though the objects speak for themselves, Aalto’s own voice comes out. The different periods in his work are introduced by quotations from Aalto, which bring a personal air to the exhibition.
Alvar Aalto’s reputation as a designer is based on his furniture, but in addition, the exhibition shows Aalto’s glass work, pictorial art, and jewellery design. The walls of the rooms also contain many first drafts.
Alvar Aalto is not very well known as a designer of jewellery. All are unique pieces, and were made mostly for his second wife Elissa Aalto and other women of his inner circle.
Most of the pieces are made partly or completely of gold, but he also worked with silver.
Architectural forms can be seen in some pieces, as well as his later abstract oil paintings.
Aino Aalto’s input is most evident in the glass objects. Furniture designed by her, or together with Alvar Aalto, have been placed in different parts of the exhibition’s time line, but Aino Aalto also comes out as an independent glass designer. She once received the second prize in the Karhula-Iittala glass competition of 1932 for her Aino collection, which is on display at the exhibition.
Less familiar objects in the chronological progression are Aalto’s furniture designs from the 1920s.
A couple of years after graduating as an architect, Aalto designed a new chandelier, pulpit, and candle holders for the Toivakka Church.
An art deco style bedroom set was made for the Turku Fair of 1929, containing many inventive and aesthetically pleasing details.
The theme of the exhibition is well served by the understated and restful exhibition architecture. Although there are plenty of objects on display, the space is not too crowded. There is plenty of room to walk around and examine the objects in detail.
The exhibition, Alvar Aalto - Master of Finnish Functionalism , can be seen at the Design Museum at Korkeavuorenkatu 23 in Helsinki until Sept. 29. Opening hours during the summer are daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 11.6.2004
More on this subject:
 Each generation has its own Aalto image
HANNU PÖPPÖNEN / Helsingin Sanomat
hannu.popponen@hs.fi
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| 15.6.2004 - THIS WEEK |
Alvar Aalto exhibition at Design Museum is a major summer cultural event
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