Taiteilija, taide ja teollisuus

Authors

• Tiina Huokuna

Abstract

Artist, art, and industry

Tapio Wirkkala (1915–1985), acknowledged Finnish designer, made products of industrial art, but was also interested in the machines they were made with. His interest in machines and instruments was motivated by several factors. The increase of consumer industry in the 1950s and 1960s changed the size, the number, and operational possibilities of factory machines. Industrial art and consumer industry formed an important junction, where artists’ ideas were gathered, where they were processed, and from where they came out to be forged by machines into real objects. In the process from an idea to a complete product Wirkkala was able to understand and to study thoroughly the technical methods. When an artist understands and is interested in technology, he probably already knows in the sketching stage what is realizable and what is not. Wirkkala’s interest in technology was certainly one of the secrets of his versatility, and it is manifested e.g. in the lamps and light bulbs that he designed.