High & Low Culture

The Aalto glass dish has a surprising similarity to the shapes in the reindeer coasters. 

This cut tree stump resembles the Aalto glass dishes with their irregular curves.

Alvar Aalto designed this bent wood chair in 1929-1932, for a sanitorium.  He thought the rounded forms would be mentally and physically soothing, while exploring new manufacturing processes.

Artek Store, Helsinki

artek is a Finnish company founded in 1935 by four people: architect Alvar Aalto and his wife Aino Aalto, visual arts promoter Maire Gullichsen and the art historian Nils-Gustav Hahl.  They believed in combining art and technology, emphasizing technical expertise in production with high quality materials.  This credo echoed the main ideas of the Bauhaus, a German art / design school, and the International Style of architecture.  Historically based design with ornamentation was considered frivolous and taboo.