Alvar Aalto 1898-1976. Organic Architecture, Art and Design

Alvar Aalto 1898-1976. Organic Architecture, Art and Design takes a new, more contemporary look at Aalto. Whereas previous exhibitions and publications have regarded Aalto’s organic architectural language as deriving directly from Finnish nature and landscape, the exhibition at CaixaForum Barcelona shows how Aalto’s affinity for organic form was mediated through a close dialogue with many artists of his time, such as László Moholy-Nagy, Jean Arp, Alexander Calder and Fernand Léger. Works by these and other artists are juxtaposed with Aalto’s designs and buildings in order to highlight his significance as a figurehead of the international art and architecture Avant-Garde from the 1920s onwards.

Sanatori de Paimio per a tuberculosos, Finland, Alvar Aalto, 1928-1933 © Alvar Aalto Museum, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2015.

CaixaForum Barcelona is now pleased to present the exhibition Alvar Aalto 1898-1976. Organic Architecture, Art and Design, an extensive overview of the life and work of Alvar Aalto (Kuortane, Finland, 1898 – Helsinki, Finland, 1976).

Aalto was the most important Finnish architect of his generation and a leading exponent of a human-centred modernism. His buildings such as the Paimio Sanatorium (1933) for patients suffering from tuberculosis, the Viipuri Library (Vyborg) and Villa Mairea (1939) embody a masterful organic interplay of volumes, forms and materials.

Organised by the Vitra Design Museum (Weil am Rhein, Germany) and the Alvar Aalto Museum (Jyväskylä, Finland) with the support of the ”la Caixa” Foundation, the exhibition – curated by Jochen Eisenbrand, Chief Curator at the Vitra Design Museum – looks at the life of this Finnish architect and provides insights into every aspect of his artistic process thanks to the 350 exhibits featured, among them period models, original drawings, furniture, lamps and glassware, as well as works by other notable artists, among them Alexander Calder and Jean Arp.

The exhibition includes Aalto’s most iconic buildings and designs, but also lesser-known projects that remained on paper. The display is complemented by the work of the German artist Armin Linke, who was commissioned to produce new photographs and film footage of particular buildings. Linke’s pieces appear throughout the exhibition, engaging in a dialogue with the period and archive material of the Vitra Design Museum and the Alvar Aalto Museum, as well as pieces from international lenders.

The show is part of the ”la Caixa” Foundation’s long-standing programme of exhibitions on architecture that not only showcases particular styles and periods of history but also offers visitors an overview that makes it possible to more fully understand the function of architecture in the world around us. The exhibitions programmed include shows on leading figures such as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Andrea Palladio and Richard Rogers, and collective projects such as Building the Revolution. Art and Architecture in Russia 1915-1935 and Towers and Skyscrapers. From Babel to Dubai.

Alvar Aalto 1898-1976. Organic Architecture, Art and Design
Venue.- Caixa Forum de Barcelona, Av. de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, 6-8, Barcelona, Spain.
Dates.- 4 June to 23 August 2015.

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Sala d’estar, Maison Louis Carré, Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, France, Alvar Aalto, 1956-1961 © Alvar Aalto Museum. Foto: Heikki Havas, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2015.

Aino Aalto en una cadira Paimio, photomontage, decade 1930 © Alvar Aalto Museum, Artek Collection, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2015.

Alvar Aalto on his boat Nemo Propheta in Patria, decade 1960 © Schildt Foundation. Foto: Göran Schildt.

Palau de Concerts i Congressos Finland, Hèlsinki, Alvar Aalto, 1962-1971 © Alvar Aalto Museum. Foto: Rune Snellman, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2015.

Maison Louis Carré, Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, Francia, Alvar Aalto, 1956-1959, 1961-1963 © Armin Linke, 2014. Gentileza de la Galleria Pescamara, Pescara.

Fernand Léger, La flor, 1935 © Artek Collection. Foto: Juha Nenonen, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2015.

Tamboret 60, Alvar Aalto, 1933 © Vitra Design Museum. Foto: Jürgen Hans, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2015.

Butaca Paimo 41, Alvar Aalto, 1932 © Vitra Design Museum. Foto: Jürgen Hans, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2015.

Alexander Calder, mòbil, decade 1930 © Ateneum Art Museum Finnish National Gallery. Foto: Janne Mäkinen, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2015.

Gerro «Savoy», Alvar Aalto, 1936 © Vitra Design Museum, Alexander Vegesack, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2015.

Viipuri Library (Víborg), Carèlia (currently Rusia), Alvar Aalto, 1927-1935 © Armin Linke, 2014. Courtesy of Galleria Villamare, Pescara.

Llum penjant A331 («Rusc»), Alvar Aalto, 1953 © Vitra Design Museum. Foto: Andreas Jung, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2015.

Alvar Aalto 1898-1976. Organic Architecture, Art and Design, a new analysis, more contemporary, of the architects work.

Alvar Aalto in his studio, 1945 © Alvar Aalto Estate / Alvar Aalto Museum. Foto: Eino Mäkinen.

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ALVAR AALTO

Alvar Aalto (February 3, 1898 - Helsinki, Finland, May 11, 1976) qualified as an architect from the Helsinki Institute of Technology (later Helsinki University of Technology and now part of the Aalto University) in 1921. He set up his first architectural practice in Jyväskylä. His early works followed the tenets of Nordic Classicism, the predominant style at that time. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he made several journeys to Europe on which he and his wife Aino Marsio, also an architect, became familiar with the latest trends in Modernism, the International Style.

The pure Functionalist phase in Aalto’s work lasted for several years. It enabled him to make an international breakthrough, largely because of the Paimio Sanatorium (1929-1933), an important Functionalist milestone. Aalto had adopted the principles of user-friendly, functional design in his architecture. From the late 1930s onwards, the architectural expression of Aalto’s buildings became enriched by the use of organic forms, natural materials and increasing freedom in the handling of space.

From the 1950s onwards, Aalto’s architectural practice was employed principally in the design of public buildings, such as Säynätsalo Town Hall (1948-1952), the Jyväskylä Institute of Pedagogics, now the University of Jyväskylä (1951-1957), and the House of Culture in Helsinki (1952-1956). His urban design master plans represent larger projects than the buildings mentioned above, the most notable schemes that were built being Seinäjoki city centre (1956-1965/87), Rovaniemi city centre (1963-1976/88) and the partly built Jyväskylä administrative and cultural centre (1970-1982).

From the early 1950s onwards, Alvar Aalto’s work focused more and more on countries outside Finland, so that many buildings both private and public were built to his designs abroad. Some of his best-known works include Villa Mairea, Noormarkku, Finland (1937–1939), the Finnish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair, Baker House, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (1947–1948), Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland (1949–1966), The Experimental House, Muuratsalo, Finland (1953) or Essen opera house, Essen, Germany (1959–1988).

Published on: June 5, 2015

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