Alvar Aalto 1898-1976

Helsinki: The Museum of Finnish Architecture, 1978. Second Edition [stated], Presumed first printing thus. Wraps. The format is approximately 8.25 inches by 8.25 inches. 168 pages. Decorative front cover. Illustrations (some with color). Some illustrations on flimsies are part of the page count. Cover has slight wear and soiling. Name of previous owner in ink on title page. Statement that "This catalogue was issued in conjunction with the Retrospective Exhibition of the works of Alvar Aalto at Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design. June 12-August 12, 1979. Alvar Aalto died on 11 May 1976. In 1978, the Museum of Finnish Architecture in Helsinki arranged a major exhibition of Aalto's works. This includes an appreciation by Goren Schildt. Aalto's international reputation was sealed with his inclusion in the second edition of Sigfried Giedion's influential book on Modernist architecture, Space, Time and Architecture: The growth of a new tradition (1949), in which Aalto received more attention than any other Modernist architect, including Le Corbusier. In his analysis of Aalto, Giedion gave primacy to qualities that depart from direct functionality, such as mood, atmosphere, intensity of life and even national characteristics, declaring that "Finland is with Aalto wherever he goes." Aalto wrote: "God created paper for the purpose of drawing architecture on it. Everything else is at least for me an abuse of paper." [Sketches, 1978]. Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (pronounced [ hu o l r henrik lto]; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, seeing painting and sculpture as "branches of the tree whose trunk is architecture." Aalto's early career ran in parallel with the rapid economic growth and industrialization of Finland during the first half of the 20th century. Many of his clients were industrialists, among them the Ahlström-Gullichsen family, who became his patrons. The span of his career, from the 1920s to the 1970s, is reflected in the styles of his work, ranging from Nordic Classicism of the early work, to a rational International Style Modernism during the 1930s to a more organic modernist style from the 1940s onwards. His architectural work, throughout his entire career, is characterized by a concern for design as Gesamtkunstwerk—a total work of art in which he, together with his first wife Aino Aalto, would design not only the building but the interior surfaces, furniture, lamps, and glassware as well. His furniture designs are considered Scandinavian Modern, an aesthetic reflected in their elegant simplification and concern for materials, especially wood, but also in Aalto's technical innovations, which led him to receiving patents for various manufacturing processes, such as those used to produce bent wood. As a designer he is celebrated as a forerunner of midcentury modernism in design; his invention of bent plywood furniture had a profound impact on the aesthetics of Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson. The Alvar Aalto Museum, designed by Aalto himself, is located in what is regarded as his home city, Jyväskylä. Condition: Very good.

Keywords: Architecture, Modernism, Designer, Furniture, Textiles, Glassware, Inventors, Bent Wood, Watercolor, Functionalism, Goran Schildt, Building, Sculpture, Exhibition

[Book #86008]

Price: $100.00

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