Alvar Aalto - Design New York Tuesday, December 12, 2017 | Phillips

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  • Literature

    Peter Reed, ed., Alvar Aalto: Between Humanism and Materialism, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1998, p. 188
    Pirkko Tuukkanen, ed., Alvar Aalto Designer, Vammala, 2002, p. 104
    Nina Stritzler-Levine, ed., Artek and the Aaltos: Creating a Modern World, exh. cat., Bard Graduate Center, New Haven, 2016, pp. 398, 594, 677-78, 680-81

  • Artist Biography

    Alvar Aalto

    Finnish • 1898 - 1976

    In contrast with the functionalism of the International Style (as well the neoclassicism put forward by the Nazi and Soviet regimes), Alvar Aalto brought a refreshing breath of humanism to modern design: "True architecture exists only where man stands in the center," he wrote. Aalto designed furniture in stack-laminated plywood composed of Finnish birch, which was cost-effective and lent warmth to his interiors. Aalto also revived Finnish glass design with his entries in the various Karhula-Iitala glassworks competitions throughout the 1930s.

    In 1936 he won first place for a collection of colorful, wavy vases in various sizes titled Eskimoerindens skinnbuxa (The Eskimo Woman’s Leather Breeches). The vases were an immediate success and the most popular size, now known as the "Savoy" vase, is still in production today. Aalto's freeform designs, in harmony with human needs and nature, anticipated the organic modernism of the 1950s and 1960s; in particular, his innovations in bent plywood had a major impact on designers such as Charles and Ray Eames.

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45

"Mehiläispesä (Beehive)" ceiling light, model no. A 331

circa 1953
Painted aluminum, brass, painted brass.
12 in. (30.5 cm) high, 13 in. (33 cm) diameter, variable drop
Manufactured by Valaistustyö Ky, Finland. Interior armature impressed VALAISTUSTYÖ A331.

Estimate
$8,000 - 12,000 

Contact Specialist
Cordelia Lembo
Specialist, Head of Sale
+1 212 940 1265

Design

New York Auction 12 December 2017