04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Designer Who Thrived in the Serenity of Lapland
In the early 1960s, Lisa Ponti, an Italian artist and journalist, who was the daughter of the designer Gio Ponti, paid a visit to the vacation home of her friends Tapio Wirkkala and Rut Bryk. This was no small journey. Her hosts, married designers based in Helsinki, summered with their children, Sami and Maaria, in the northernmost part of Finnish Lapland.
The property lacked plumbing, electricity and even road access. The approach at that time was by boat in summer and by a sled pulled by reindeer over a frozen lake in winter. If the climate 165 miles above the Arctic Circle turned out to be colder than expected, visitors could hardly drop by a department store and pick up a sweater. But Maaria Wirkkala, an artist, who is now 71, recalled that when her father saw the contents of Ms. Ponti's bags, he pointed to item after item with the refrain, 'Not necessary … not necessary.' Clockwise from upper left: original farmhouse, known as the "Old House"; bed built by Mr. Wirkkala; view from the Old House; and interior of the "Big House" that was added to the property. Credit... Rauno Traskelin
His love of extremity is a theme of 'Tapio Wirkkala: The Sculptor of Ultima Thule,' an exhibition of 300 of his works that opens April 5 at the Tokyo Station Gallery, before traveling to other sites in Japan. Placing the designer in the context of the remote northern region that bewitched him, the show marks the 110th anniversary of his birth and the 40th anniversary of his death.
Its title refers to two of Mr. Wirkkala's best-known creations — glassware called Ultima Thule that seems to drip with icicles (released in 1968, it continues to be produced by the Finnish company Iittala), and a 30-foot-long carved wood sculpture also called Ultima Thule, a name that has referred since antiquity to remote northern lands. That art piece, which was made for the Finnish pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal, represents nature swirling and gouging the earth. Image Mr. Wirkkala at the Old House. A sleigh is propped up next to him. Credit... Maaria Wirkkala
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