Maija Isola

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Maija Sofia Isola (born March 15, 1927 in Riihimäki ; † March 3, 2001 ibid) was a Finnish designer and artist.

life and work

From 1946 to 1949 she studied painting at the Helsinki School of Art and Design . In 1949 Isola designed the first fabric designs for Printex Oy. Vilho Ratio founded this company and was artistically directed by Armi Ratia (1912–1979). In the 1950s, Printex Oy became part of the Marimekko company to promote the use of fabrics in fashion and interior design. Her first collection of 30 objects with the name Luonto (nature) appeared in 1957–59, followed by other models in 1962–1963 that she had designed in this style. Maija Isola worked as chief designer at Marimekko until 1997.

In addition to her position at Marimekko, she worked as a freelance artist. She carried over many of her screen printed textiles from her artistic work. She designed 500 fabric prints for Marimekko. Her first designs were based on African art and botanical motifs. Patterns of Slovak folk art followed in the late 1950s and traditional Karelian peasant motifs in the late 1960s and early 1970s . Her best-known series of printed cotton fabrics such as Kaivo ( ca.1964 ), Melooni (1963) and Cock and Hen (1965) have strong geometric patterns in even colors. They set the style for a new direction in Finnish design. In 1962/63 she designed the printed fabrics Satula and Pyöryläinen , followed in 1967/68 by Mantilla , Keisarinkruunu , Härkä , Istuva Härkä and 1971/72 Uimari .

Between 1978 and 1987 she worked with her daughter Kristina Isola. The most famous fabric pattern by Maija Isola is Unikko (poppy flower) from 1964. Marimekko celebrated the 50th anniversary of the poppy flower design with numerous activities.

In 1965 and 1968, Isola was awarded prizes for industrial design, and her textiles have been exhibited in Europe, America and Australia and influenced contemporary textile design. Four printed materials (including Pepe from 1972) are in the New Collection in Munich.

Exhibitions

  • Exhibitions in Europe and the USA: Design in Scandinavia , USA 1960/61
  • Milan Triennial 1957
  • World Exhibition Brussels Formes Scandinaves 1958
  • Louvre , Paris Finlandia
  • Finnish exhibition in the Federal Republic of Germany 1956/57
  • Maija Isola - life, art, Marimekko, Helsinki Design Museum

literature

  • Ulf Hård af Segerstad: Scandinavian Utility Art , Umschau, Frankfurt am Main 1961, p. 66
  • Erik Zahle (ed.): Scandinavian arts and crafts , Droemer Knaur, Munich / Zurich 1963, ills. 193, 197, 198, 199
  • Mary Schoeser: Fabrics and Wallpapers. Twentieth-Century Design , EP Dutton, New York 1986, ISBN 978-0525244622 , p. 96
  • Hans Wichmann: From Morris to Memphis. Textiles from the New Collection from the end of the 19th to the end of the 20th century. Volume 3 of the collection catalogs of the New Collection (Munich), Birkhäuser Basel 1990, ISBN 978-3-7643-2313-4 , pp. 268, 288, 289
  • Susanne S. Girke-Filip: International textile design: the period from 1960–1990. Its interrelationship between architecture and society. In: Textile work + teaching 4/1996, p. 171
  • Charlotte and Peter Fiell (eds.): Design 60s Decorative Art , Taschen, Köln 2000, ISBN 978-3-8365-4655-3 , pp. 310, 323, 336, 337, 340
  • Charlotte and Peter Fiell (eds.): Design des 20. Jahrhundert , Taschen, Köln 2012, ISBN 978-3-8365-4107-7 , p. 351

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Charlotte and Peter Fiell (eds.): Design des 20. Jahrhundert , Taschen, Köln 2012, ISBN 978-3-8365-4107-7 , p. 351
  2. ↑ 50 years of Unikko on the Marimekko page in 2014, accessed on July 21, 2015
  3. ↑ Hans Wichmann: From Morris to Memphis. Textiles from the New Collection from the end of the 19th to the end of the 20th century. Volume 3 of the collection catalogs of the New Collection (Munich), Birkhäuser Basel 1990, ISBN 978-3-7643-2313-4 , p. 268
personal data
SURNAME Maija Isola
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Isola, Maija Sofia (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish designer and artist
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Riihimäki
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 2001
Place of death Riihimäki