Operated by the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society

Fragile But Strong & Glass-Art-Function
October 12 - November 17, 2000

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Introduction

Functionalism and Beyond
Contemporary Glass and Ceramics of Finland

Fragile But Strong
Works by Brita Flander and Elina Sorainen

Glass-Art-Function
Post-Modernist Glass of Finland

Iittala Glass
Alvar Aalto
Aino Aalto
Tapio Wirkkala
Timo Sarpaneva
Kaj Franck
Markku Salo
Harri Koskinen

Franck's Kartio glasses and Teema tableware, based on the 1950s Kilta series, are his internationally best known works. Both are stamped with the artist's creative principle: a constant striving towards purity of form and uncomplicated beauty.

GLASS - ART - FUNCTION
POST-MODERNIST GLASS OF FINLAND

KAJ FRANCK (1911 - 1989)

Kaj Franck had an extraordinary influence on tableware design through the popular ceramics and decorative glass he created for two major Finnish manufacturers: the ceramics he produced as head of the design department for utility wares at Arabia from 1945 to 1960, and the glassware he designed as artistic director at Nuutajarvi beginning in 1950 (when it joined the Wartsila group). Focusing primarily on simple shapes and inexpensive, multifunctional forms that were fully adapted to mass production, Franck saw design in terms of social not individualistic goals, and he argued in an article in 1967 for the anonymity of factory products and clearly distinguished between them and the unique works of the craftsman. "... It is wrong to make the designer the salesman of the (manufactured) article ..." he wrote. "... This offends against the object, the consumer, and the designer. It deprives the article of its value as an article. It inhibits objective judgment by the consumer and restricts his freedom of choice ..."

Franck studied interior design at the Taideteollinen Keskuskoulu (Central School of Industrial Arts) in Helsinki from 1929 to 1932, and then worked as an independent interior and product designer creating lighting fixtures (for Taito), furniture (for Tema), glass (for Riihimaen Lasi), and textiles before going to work for Arabia in 1945. He worked for the Wartsila firms until 1978. Franck was awarded a Gold Medal in 1951, a Diploma of Honour in 1954, and a Grand Prize in 1957 at the Triennale in Milan; a Compasso d'Oro in 1957; and the Lunning Prize in 1955.

KARTIO GLASS SERVICE (1958)

Although designed in the 1950s, Kartio remain a part of everyday life in many homes around the world. The collection, intended for daily use, was designed to be durable, simple and practical, both in shape and function. Franck's Kartio glasses and Teema tableware, based on the 1950s Kilta series, are his internationally best known works. Both are stamped with the artist's creative principle: a constant striving towards purity of form and uncomplicated beauty.

Information for the art shown above:

• Kaj Franck, Kartio Glass Set, 1950, Various colored glass