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Timo Sarpaneva
Timo Sarpaneva (1926- 2006)
Timo Sarpaneva belongs to the generation of designers and artists who act as Finland’s cultural ambassadors to the world, beginning with the Milan Triennales in the 1950’s, in which Sarpaneva won numerous Grand Prix. The secret of his great success, is that he better than any other is able to transform everyday objects into art. His work reveals the high quality of Finland’s craft tradition as well as showing a unique understanding for the ways that natural forms could me mimicked in the man-made objects that surround us.
Sarpaneva began working for Iittala glassworks in 1950 as an independent designer and as head of exhibitions. He created the company logo in the mid 1950’s, the significant “i” in a red circle is still used by the company. In 1962, Sarpaneva set up his own office and began designing for a wider variety of companies. Apart from Finnish manufacturers, he also created glass for Corning, US and Venini, Italy.
As a designer he is unusually versatile, working with a range of different materials such as ceramics, metal, textile, wood and glass. Glass is nevertheless the material that is closest to him, “because glass is the material of space, it is best suited as a material to be given to light”, as he says himself. It is in capturing light that Timo Sarpaneva is at his best. He has the ability to show the light in his pieces as if seen from beneath the ice that covers the sea. Sarpaneva designed many classic glass sculptures and art pieces for Iittala. These for the most deceptively simple objects demanded the highest precision from the blowers and cutters at the factory. For the “Lansetti” vase, for example, the opening was created by pushing a stick of wood into the molten glass.
Timo Sarpaneva took a completely comprehensive approach to design, learning the manufacturing processes and communicating with the people involved. He was a teacher of textile composition and printing and a mentor to the next generation of Finnish designers. He also became a professor in the 1960’s. In a career that has spanned for more than four decades, Sarpaneva has had numerous one-man exhibitions all over the world, and has been honoured with several important design awards.
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