Tapio Wirkkala

The first comprehensive catalogue on Tappio Wirkkala in 15 years. 570 illustrations allow a truly remarkable insight into Wirkkala's work. In this lavishly illustrated publication Tapio Wirkkala's objects in glass and silver have been given the treatment they so richly merit. In his native Finland the designer is highly esteemed and has influenced many who have come after him. Beautiful pieces are juxtaposed with personal exhibition and workshop photographs, the whole completed with instructive sketches and essays presenting the way Tapio Wirkkala sets to work and how he chooses his materials. The upshot is luminously elegant utilitarian objects and delicate one-off pieces. The designer began to show work as long ago as the documenta III exhibition in 1964. Contents: A Poet in Glass and Silver (Heikki Matiskainen), Iconic Designer and Myth Maker (Jack Dawson), Silver in the Oevre of the Designer (Tuula Poutasuo), The Signature of Iittala Glass Objects (Kaisa Koivisto, Juhani Kukkonen, Sirkka-Liisa Löflund), Art Glass by Tapio Wirkkala (Hannele Viilomaa), Silver designed by Tapio Wirkkala (Kaisa Koivisto), Glass Terminology (Kaisa Koivisto), Curriculum.