Pagodi Pendant Lamp by Lisa Johansson-Pape for Iittala, Finland, 1960s

Finnish designer Lisa Johansson-Pape enjoyed a long and varied career in lighting, furniture, textile, and ceramic design. She was one of Finland's leading lighting designers in the 20th century and was instrumental in promoting Finnish design internationally.

Born in 1907, Lisa Johansson-Pape studied at the Industrial Art Institute in Helsinki University of Art & Design (Now Aalto University of Art & Design), graduating in 1928. She worked as a furniture designer for Kylmäkoski and Stockmann and created carpets for the Friends of Finnish Handicraft, before turning her attention to lighting design. She collaborating with the Stockmann-owned lighting factory Orno from 1942, famously remarking, “it was quite by accident that I became a design light artist. By education, I am a furniture designer, but I had to make lamps during the war.”

Notable designs include the Lisa (1947), Sipuli (1954), and Laura (1957) pendant lamps. The Sipuli, often referred to by the English translation Onion, resembles the form of the vegetable for which it was named. The angular design in opaline glass was awarded a gold medal at the Triennale di Milano in 1954, which was just one of several prizes Johansson-Pape received in her career; she was also awarded a silver medal at the 1951 Triennale di Milano and the Pro-Finlandia prize in 1957. In the 1950s she developed an interest in ceramics and glass, collaborating with historic Finnish glass factory Iittala.

In addition to the famous Milan Triennial exhibitions, Johansson-Pape represented Finland in venues around the world. She provided the lighting fixtures for the Finnish display at the New York World Fair in 1939 and the Design in Scandinavia exhibition that traveled to multiple museums in the US in the mid-1950s. She also organised a Rya textile exhibition, which debuted in Helsinki in 1956 before it toured the Nordic countries and the rest of Europe. In 1960, her solo exhibition Light—Glass—Metal opened in Helsinki, followed in 1966 by a joint exhibition with friend and textile artist Dora Jung in Stockholm.

Johansson-Pape was an active member of several national design organisations, including the Friends of Finnish Handicraft, which she joined in 1933 and chaired as Artistic Director from 1951 to 1985. Her commemorative Dora Jung exhibition toured many cities after it opened in Helsinki in 1983. She lectured and wrote extensively on the subject of lighting design, promoting Scandinavian modernist principles; “a good light fixture must be simple, and its structure and function must be both neat and correct,” she wrote.

Historic Finnish glassworks company Iittala was founded by Swedish glassblower Petrus Magnus Abrahamsson in 1881 in a village of the same name. The company changed hands several times and struggled to survive through the turn of the 20th century and beyond. It wasn’t until the 1930s, after Iittala merged with the Karhula glass company, that Iittala began to build its international reputation for beautiful yet functionalist art glass.

In 1932, Finnish designer Göran Hongell joined Iittala. In the years leading up to World War II, Hongell brought in talented outside designers and glassblowers, initiated design competitions, modernized the facilities and collections, and, in 1937, separated Iittala from Karhula. Hereafter, Karhula took over automated glass production, and Iittala oncentrated only on fine, artisanal production.

Esteemed Finnish designers Alvar and Aino Aalto were among the first collaborators to create iconic glass designs for Iittala. Aino developed her utilitarian pressed glass Bölgeblick series—now called Aalto Glasses—in 1932, and Alvar created his undulating Savoy Vase, inspired by the lakes of Finland, in 1936.

In 1946, Iittala organized a competition calling for “contemporary” art glass designs, and Finnish design masters Tapio Wirkkala and Kaj Franck jointly won. They both, in time, contributed significant works to Iittala’s collections, such as Wirkkala’s highly sculptural Kantarelli Vases (1946). 

In 1950, another Finnish design master joined Iittala: Timo Sarpaneva. Not only did Sarpaneva design the Iittala logo, he contributed a number of glassware and art glass designs that continue to be collected today. Standouts include his Lansetti Vases (1952), Orkidea Vases (1953), the i-Collection (1956), Triennale Glasses (1956/57), and Finlandia Vase (1964). Sarpaneva’s glass designs played a key role in popularizing Scandinavian design in the postwar era, winning the Grand Prix at both the 1954 and 1957 Triennale di Milano. In 1956, US-based shelter magazine House Beautiful judged Sarpaneva’s Orkidea Vase to be “The Most Beautiful Object of the Year.”

Through the second half of the 20^th century, Iittala continued to set high standards of quality and innovation in glass production. In 1990, the company was acquired by the Hackman Group, and international designers such as Konstantin Grcic and Marc Newson were commissioned to create new collections. Since 1996, Finnish designer Harri Koskinen has worked in-house for Iittala. In 2007, Finnish scissors brand, Friskars Corporation, bought the Iittala Group; Fiskars Group also owns Arabia, Royal Copenhagen, Rörstrand, Waterford, and Wedgwood, among others.

* Special thanks to Iittala for images.