Alongside his prosperous architectural career, Alvar Aalto also designed useful objects for interiors that complemented the aesthetics of his building projects. These designs included furniture, lighting devices, textiles, and decorative objects that were produced by Aalto’s design office, Artek. Artek designs are minimalistic and characterized by clean lines, decorative restraint, and the use of natural materials and colors, in correspondence with Aalto’s aesthetic philosophy. His design for the printed cotton textile Siena reflects these principles. Designed in 1954, this textile notably dates to the same year that Artek significantly expanded its operations after moving from its original location to a larger commercial space designed by Aalto, known as the Rautatolo Building.1 It was also around this time that Artek began to substantially increase the in-house offerings of its textile product line as the demand for modern printed textiles grew in the postwar era.2
The majority of Artek’s textiles were designed by Aino Marsio Aalto (1894–1949) and Elissa Aalto (1922–1994).3 However, Alvar Aalto is known to have created three patterns, 14/6, 14/14, and Siena.4 As seen here, Siena’s gridlike design consists of overlapping taupe and black bars arranged vertically on a white cotton ground. According to Artek, this modern geometric design may have been inspired by the medieval cathedral in Siena, as Alvar Aalto had a great appreciation of Italy’s historic architecture and visited Siena on multiple occasions.5 The cathedral is lavishly ornamented with bands of dark- and light-colored marble and features tall and narrow rectangular windows that emphasize the height of the Gothic structure. The textile’s contrasting colors and rhythmic rows of rectangles echo the cathedral’s facade. Siena was intended to be multipurpose and is known to have been used for fashion as well as interior design. In fact, Elissa Aalto owned a dress made from Siena. An iconic design, Siena has remained in production since it was first introduced seventy years ago, although contemporary printings feature different colorways than the original design. —Sarah Marie Horne
Notes
1. Kaarina Mikonranta and Ulla Kinnunen, eds., Ben Af Schultén Ja Artekin Traditio [Ben Af Schultén and the Artek Tradition] (Helsinki: Alvar Aalto Säätiö, 2008), 11–12.
2. In the 1930s and 1940s, Artek produced only a limited number of its own textiles, and most were purchased from other firms in Finland or abroad. Artek did not begin seriously expanding its own textile catalogue until the late 1940s. Nina Stritzler-Levine, ed., Artek and the Aaltos: Furnishing the World (New York: Bard Graduate Center for, 2016), 669.
3. Aino Marsio Aalto was an architect, a cofounder of Artek, the firm’s first artistic director, and Alvar Aalto’s first wife. Following Aino’s death, Alvar married Elissa Aalto (neé Elsa-Kaisa Mäkiniemi) in 1952. Elissa was also an architect and began working in the Aalto Design Office in 1949.
4. Martina D’Amato, “Siena and 14/6 Screen-Printed Cottons,” in 2021 Modern: A Catalogue of 20th-Century Printed Textiles & Designs (New York: Cora Ginsburg, 2021), 26, https://coraginsburg.com/publications/12-2021-modern/ (accessed November 8, 2023).
5. “Siena Fabric,” Artek Products, https://www.artek.fi/en/products/siena-fabric (accessed November 8, 2023).