Paimio Lounge Chair (Model 41)
Design Date 1930-1931
Designer Alvar Aalto (1898-1976, Finnish)
Manufacturer Artek oy ab (1935-present), Helsinki, Finland
Media birch wood and plywood
Dimensions 26 x 23 3/4 x 34 inches
Alvar Aalto was the architect for the tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, Finland for which he also designed this lounge chair. He hoped to create furniture appropriate for a medical setting that maintained good design and wasn’t too aesthetically sterile. Aalto chose bentwood for the armchair’s construction because, he said, “tubular and chromium surface are good solutions technically, but psychophysically these materials are not good for the human being.” Natural wood was “better for the human touch and more suitable as the general material for the long and painful life in a sanatorium.” The ribbon-like shape of the seat with its curved scrolls is both supportive and decorative.
ON VIEW in Modern Gallery 7
Markings unmarked
Credit Line Collection Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art
Accession Number 2006.1309
