Birger Kaipiainen

Kaipiainen’s early career coincided with the new ideas of Functionalism and the endeavour to strip applied art of all ornamentation, decorativeness and sentimentality. But Kaipiainen insistently stuck to an imaginary, mysterious and poetic pictorial world, inspired by nature, historical styles and classic era ceramics. At Arabia he enjoyed an artistic freedom to fulfil his dreamy visions – free from the constraints of industrial production.

The  pieces  he created for Arabia are refined examples. Beautifully decorated with colourful grapes, berries and flowers, they are influenced by the art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as well as by his own childhood memories. It is said that the basic tone of Kaipiainen’s work is a romantic nostalgia; an escape from the present Everyday  and a yearning for the Elsewhere, a more beautiful world infused with memories gilded by time. “Imagination costs nothing. It has no limits and no one can say where it ends”, he said in an interview on his 60^th birthday.

Kaipiainen was awarded the Grand Prix at the Milan Triennial in 1960 and at the Montreal Expo in 1967. In Finland he was granted the Pro Finlandia medal in 1963 and the honorary title of professor in 1977.