Alvar Aalto - Design New York Tuesday, December 15, 2015 | Phillips
  • Literature

    Peter Reed, ed., Alvar Aalto: Between Humanism and Materialism, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1998, p. 188, fig. 127
    Pirkko Tuukkanen, ed., Alvar Aalto Designer, Vammala, 2002, p. 104

  • 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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179

"Mehiläispesä (Beehive)" ceiling light, model no. A331

designed circa 1953
Painted aluminum, perforated brass, painted brass.
12 in. (30.5 cm) high, 13 in. (33 cm) diameter, variable drop
Manufactured by Valaistustyö Ky, Finland.
Interior light fixture impressed with valaistustyö A 331.

Estimate
$8,000 - 12,000 

Sold for $14,375

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New York Auction 15 December 2015 1pm