Cooper Hewitt says...
Artek was founded in Finland in 1935 by the architect Alvar Aalto, his wife Aino Aalto, art promoter Maire Gullichsen and art historian Nils-Gustav Hahl. The company’s non-Finnish name was a manifestation of this desire to combine art and technology and bring together human modernism, innovation in design and production, and popular education. The firm focused on new production techniques and material quality, eschewing historicism and echoing the International Style. Although originally conceived to promote designs by the Aaltos and manufacture furnishings for their buildings, the company ultimately took on a more theoretical and pedagogical role, organizing a number of exhibitions featuring established artists, architects and designers as well as students from those fields, and generating and contributing to new ways of thought related to modernism in everyday life.
The company’s current collection is based on Alvar Aalto’s ideas regarding standards and systems that allow versatile objects and furnishings to be easily customized for individual consumers and projects. After Alvar’s death in 1973, Artek began manufacturing objects by other Finnish designers, and in 2013 was purchased by Vitra but retained its name. Artek currently operates four retail spaces and is headquartered in Helsinki with offices in New York, Tokyo, Stockholm, and Berlin.
