ArtistFinnish
Tauno Wirkkala
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Tauno Wirkkala was born in Finland in 1932 into a family with deep roots in art and craft. His brother was Tapio Wirkkala, one of the defining figures of twentieth-century Finnish design, and his sister Helena Korvenkontio was also an artist. Growing up in that creative environment, Tauno found his own path through glass, becoming a designer for Humppila Glassworks and producing a body of work that, while less visible internationally than his brother's, carries a clear and consistent artistic vision.
Humppila Glassworks was founded in 1952 by brothers formerly employed at Nuutajärvi, one of Finland's oldest glassworks. The factory, housed in a converted barn in the small town of Humppila, positioned itself as a home for Finnish art glass with a strong sense of place and material. It was an ideal environment for Tauno Wirkkala, whose designs are rooted in the Finnish natural world -- its forests, seasons, and northern skies.
His most significant contribution to Finnish design is the Kalevala glass series, which he developed from 1972 onward and which remained in production through 1987. The series includes multiple named collections: Revontulet (Northern Lights), Mesiurut (Honey Horns), Ulpukka (Water Lily), Prisma, Tokka (Herd), and Aurinko (Sun). Each name signals the inspiration, and the forms follow: heavy, sculptural blown glass with textured exterior surfaces that catch and diffuse light, produced in amber, green, blue, and clear glass. The Revontulet pieces in particular -- bowls and vessels whose outer surfaces resemble compressed sheets of ice while the interiors remain smooth -- have become the works most associated with his name on the secondary market.
The designs carry what collectors have identified as a Brutalist quality: substantial, tactile objects that prioritize material presence over delicacy. Where Tapio Wirkkala's glass for Iittala often pursues refinement and lyrical line, Tauno's work for Humppila is heavier, more geological, drawing on the weight of Finnish winter rather than its elegance. The palette of deep amber and forest green amplifies this quality.
Tauno Wirkkala lived and worked quietly compared to his brother, maintaining a private life while producing designs that found consistent commercial success through Humppila's retail network. His work appears regularly at Scandinavian auction houses, including Göteborgs Auktionsverk and Helsingborgs Auktionskammare, where pieces from the Kalevala series attract steady collector interest.
He died in 2005. The Wirkkala family stands as one of the most productive artistic dynasties in twentieth-century Finnish culture, and Tauno's contribution to Finnish glass -- though it occupies a different register from Tapio's -- is a genuine and identifiable strand of that tradition.