Page 30 - Issue 29 - VE Magazine

Porcelain for Rosenthal
If you haven’t seen anything else by Wirkkala, you must have seen the products of his long professional association with Rosenthal AG in Germany, which began in 1956. He made a considerable contribution to the output of this group of companies, designing eight porcelain tableware services for Rosenthal and seven for Thomas, in addition to more than 200 porcelain vases, dishes and other objects.
One of his best-known services for
Rosenthal, ‘Variation’ (seen below), inspired Walter Gropius when he was designing Rosenthal’s new plant in
Selb in 1967. Wirkkala’s wife Rut Bryk designed the cloud motif for his ‘Century’ tableware and he developed other decoration techniques such as etched porcelain, known at Rosenthal as ‘silk matte’. This can be seen in his Paper Bag Vase, from the Do Not Litter series and the organic-looking Pollo Vases.
Above: The organic looking Pollo vases designed circa 1979. Below: To mark what would be Tapio’s 100th birthday, Rosenthal released the brilliant 1977 Paper Bag Vase in a range of new colours
Mid 60s glass egg signed Venini, Italy
Handmade and blown glass with the ‘Incalmo’ technique joining two different pieces when the glass is still hot
Art glass for Venini
The activity of Tapio Wirkkala in Venini represents an interesting phase of his versatile career, and deeply influenced the Murano glass scene. He was already a world famous designer and he was the one who exploited the ‘Incalmo’ technique
often combined with the ‘mezzafiligrana’ and ‘murrine’. Contrasting with his very limited use of colour for the Finnish market, when Wirkkala had
the Venini Glass Masters
at his disposal – famous for coloured glass since Roman time – he did amazing things using their almost boundless colour palette.
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