As Alvar Aalto often took his inspiration from his surrounding nature, this layered design creates an eye-pleasing experience and is also inspired from the beehive, even though the beehive lamp is known to be a different pendent. In addition to the organic shape, the slots around the lower part create a beautiful futuristic look. The shade is made of solid brass and the rest of the body is of white painted metal.
The lamp is stamped Valaistustyö and model number on the body, but the brass shade is of a later date. It is however an origianl Aalto solid brass shade and holds remnants of a Valaisinpaja stamp.
Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) is a world famous architect and designer. He was well known for designing his own line of furniture and lighting for the numerous buildings that he designed worldwide. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles, glassware, sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, seeing painting and sculpture as branches of a tree that stem from architecture.
Aalto's career from the 1920s-1970s is reflected in the styles of his work, ranging from Classicism to Modernism and to an organic style from the 1940s onwards. Aalto and his wife Aino were famous for not only designing the buildings, but the interior surfaces, furniture, lamps and even the glassware for those buildings. Aalto's furniture designs are Scandinavian Modernism at its best, especially his technical innovations on the bent plywood furniture, which in turn had a great impact on Mid-Century Modernist furniture.
Aalto's works are highly sought after and some fetch record prices in auctions and the design world. Of course his works are also widely collected and can be found in numerous private collections and famous museums.
