The Franz Mayer Museum presents, for the first time in Mexico, works in glass, metal and textiles by one of the Masters from Finland’s golden age of design: Timo Sarpaneva, born in Helsinki, Finland on 31st October, 1926.From his childhood Timo was in contact with the manufacture of objects as at that time almost everything in Finland was made by hand; houses, ships, furniture. His grandfather worked in metal and forged tools and made utensils for the whole village.

He started his studies in 1946 at the Central School of Applied Arts (Taideteollisuuskeskuskoulu), where he studied under the legendary designer Arttu Brummer. At the age of 22 he won second prize in the International Glass Design Competition sponsored by the Riihimäki Glass Factory. This was a very successful outcome for everybody involved, given that Brummer, his teacher, took first place.

He exhibited his paintings and drawings for the first time in the Young Artists’ Exhibition of 1949. His work attracted very favorable comment and that same year he began work as a designer in the Karhula-Littala glass factory. His first design, an abstract piece in opaline glass, has been kept in the Littala collection.

In 1953, at the Littala glass factory, he developed a blown steam technique, which produces an air bubble inside the glass. In 1955 he created the i colors, mixing lilac, blue and green with grey. During the same year he started work at the Porin Puuvilla textile factory.

From this time on he has been considered as a member of the respected group of artists and designers on which Finland’s international reputation as a pioneer of modern design rests. He shares this position with other artists and designers such as Alvar Aalto, Eero Aarnio, Paavo Tunell and Tapio Wirkkala, who built the modern Finland of the 50’s and 60’s through their practical designs.

With this background, Sarpaneva is one of today’s most sought after designers worldwide. He has collaborated with many large firms such as Porin Puuvilla e Littala, OPA and Rosenthal and Venini. Companies from Finland, Sweden, Germany and Italy have all benefited from his talents.

Most importantly, each of his works has a “soul” which reflects his ideas about life: “I think that in order to be able to create you have to live an interesting life. I Iove my work, I love observing and changing environments and activities. I love life, nature, the sea etc. I believe that nature is very powerful and allows you to think”.

The Timo Sarpaneva exhibition, which will open shortly in the Franz Mayer Museum, presents a selection of works from the Helsinki Designmuseo, with more than 500 articles and works of art, as well as an archive of studies and drafts tracing the life of one of the most important Finnish designers of the 20th century.

The selected works provide a complete panorama of Sarpaneva’s career: on the one hand, the visitor will be able to appreciate the abundance of forms and materials; on the other hand they will observe the recurrence of certain themes and the development of others which have been influential throughout his works, such as those objects that reflect the great beauty of Finland’s landscapes.

This exhibition covers the period beginning with the Post World War II reconstruction up to the beginning of the new millennium. The wide range of Sarpaneva’s works in different media — glass, ceramics, plastics and textiles — reflect his attitude towards work: he is an artist and each piece that he designs is conceived and born as a unique work.

The Franz Mayer Museum believes in the importance of showing the way that design has developed in Finland and other Nordic countries given that one of its main objectives is to promote contemporary decorative arts and design.

Indeed the Government of Finland considers that design is a factor, which adds value and competitiveness to the country’s industry. As a reflection of this, Finland celebrated the International Day of Design in 2005, just one year after it was first instituted. The personality and works of Sarpaneva match the optimism of a nation that is interested in promoting design as an industry. Achieving international recognition in the way that Finnish design has during the 20th century has not just called for sound professionalism, but also boldness on the part of Finland’s schools, designers and manufacturers.

Sarpaneva occupies a special place in the development of design in his native land. He is known as an artist who has been a graphic designer, a designer of glass, ceramics, metal, textiles, plastic and even clothing. In his childhood in Finland he would travel through the dense forests of Säviäntaipale with his grandfather, carrying a notebook in which he drew the delicate shapes produced by ice among the trees.

“I used to enjoy going to places alone to draw. I used pen and pencil to record the personality of the people, my surroundings, domestic animals and the landscape. Drawing and painting freed me from my physical surroundings and took me to wherever I wanted to be. People around me viewed my drawings and paintings with interest and began to think of me as an artist. I was 13 years old at the time.”

During his productive career he has participated in many joint exhibitions in twenty-six countries on every continent. He has held one-man exhibitions in Germany, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Uruguay and now in Mexico.

More than thirty important museums have works by Sarpaneva, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Boymans van Beuningen Museum (Rotterdam) and the