Desk, Alvar Aalto, Artek, 1950/1960s

About the Item

Desk, design Alvar Aalto, manufactured by Artek, 1950/1960s. Teak table top with painted wood drawers. Good vintage condition, patina and wear consistent with age and use. Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) is probably the most famous Finnish architect and designer in the world. Aalto graduated as an architect from Helsinki University of Technology in 1921. One of his most famous works is the Paimio Sanatorium, a hospital designed for the treatment of tuberculosis patients. Aalto designed the Paimio Sanatorium in its entirety, including furniture and lighting, and this project was also the beginning of his career as a furniture designer. Other famous works by Aalto include the Vyborg Library, Villa Mairea, La Maison Carré and the Finnish pavilions at the Paris (1937) and New York (1939) World's Fairs. In 1935, Alvar Aalto founded Artek, a well-known Finnish furniture and lighting company, with Aino Aalto, Maire Gullichsen and Nils-Gustav Hahl. The company was set up to sell furniture designed by Alvar Aalto, but also to 'promote modern living through exhibitions and other means'.

Creator:

Artek (Manufacturer),Alvar Aalto (Designer)

Dimensions:

Height: 27.17 in (69 cm)Width: 68.9 in (175 cm)Depth: 17.72 in (45 cm)

Style:

Scandinavian Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Teak,Wood

Place of Origin:

Finland

Period:

1960-1969

Date of Manufacture:

circa 1950

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use. Good vintage condition, patina and wear consistent with age and use.

Seller Location:

Helsinki, FI

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU7495238463482

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Shop All Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto

An architect and designer, Alvar Aalto deserves an immense share of the credit for bringing Scandinavian modernism and Nordic design to a prominent place in the global arena. In both his buildings and his vintage furniture — which ranges from chairs, stools, tables and lighting to table- and glassware — Aalto’s sensitivity to the natural world and to organic forms and materials tempered the hardness of rationalist design.

Relatively few Aalto buildings exist outside Finland. (Just four exist in the United States, and only one — the sinuous 1945 Baker House dormitory at M.I.T. — is easily visited.) International attention came to Aalto, whose surname translates to English as “wave,” primarily through his furnishings.

Instead of the tubular metal framing favored by the Bauhaus designers and Le Corbusier, Aalto insisted on wood. His aesthetic is best represented by the Paimio armchair, developed with his wife, Aino Aalto, in 1930 as part of the overall design of a Finnish tuberculosis sanatorium.

Comfortable, yet light enough to be easily moved by patients, the Paimio chair’s frame is composed of two laminated birch loops; the seat and back are formed from a single sheet of plywood that scrolls under the headrest and beneath the knees, creating a sort of pillow effect. Aalto’s use of plywood had an enormous influence on Charles and Ray Eames, Arne Jacobsen, Marcel Breuer and others who later came to the material.

Concerned with keeping up standards of quality in the production of his designs, Aalto formed the still-extant company Artek in 1935, along with Aino, whose glass designs were made by the firm. In the latter medium, in 1936 the Aaltos together created the iconic, undulating Savoy vase, so-called for the luxe Helsinki restaurant for which the piece was designed.

Artek also produced Aalto pendants and other lighting designs, many of which — such as the Angel’s Wing floor lamp and the Beehive pendant — incorporate a signature Aalto detail: shades made of concentric enameled-metal rings graduated down in diameter. The effect of the technique is essential Alvar Aalto: at once precise, simple, and somehow poetic.

Find a collection of vintage Alvar Aalto stools, vases, dining tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.