Scandinavian Adjustable Floor Lamps in Black Lacquer and Brass by Josef Frank, 1940s, Set of 2

Finnish designer Lisa Johansson-Pape enjoyed a long and varied career in lighting, furniture, textile, and ceramic design. She was one of Finland's leading lighting designers in the 20th century and was instrumental in promoting Finnish design internationally.

Born in 1907, Lisa Johansson-Pape studied at the Industrial Art Institute in Helsinki University of Art & Design (Now Aalto University of Art & Design), graduating in 1928. She worked as a furniture designer for Kylmäkoski and Stockmann and created carpets for the Friends of Finnish Handicraft, before turning her attention to lighting design. She collaborating with the Stockmann-owned lighting factory Orno from 1942, famously remarking, “it was quite by accident that I became a design light artist. By education, I am a furniture designer, but I had to make lamps during the war.”

Notable designs include the Lisa (1947), Sipuli (1954), and Laura (1957) pendant lamps. The Sipuli, often referred to by the English translation Onion, resembles the form of the vegetable for which it was named. The angular design in opaline glass was awarded a gold medal at the Triennale di Milano in 1954, which was just one of several prizes Johansson-Pape received in her career; she was also awarded a silver medal at the 1951 Triennale di Milano and the Pro-Finlandia prize in 1957. In the 1950s she developed an interest in ceramics and glass, collaborating with historic Finnish glass factory Iittala.

In addition to the famous Milan Triennial exhibitions, Johansson-Pape represented Finland in venues around the world. She provided the lighting fixtures for the Finnish display at the New York World Fair in 1939 and the Design in Scandinavia exhibition that traveled to multiple museums in the US in the mid-1950s. She also organised a Rya textile exhibition, which debuted in Helsinki in 1956 before it toured the Nordic countries and the rest of Europe. In 1960, her solo exhibition Light—Glass—Metal opened in Helsinki, followed in 1966 by a joint exhibition with friend and textile artist Dora Jung in Stockholm.

Johansson-Pape was an active member of several national design organisations, including the Friends of Finnish Handicraft, which she joined in 1933 and chaired as Artistic Director from 1951 to 1985. Her commemorative Dora Jung exhibition toured many cities after it opened in Helsinki in 1983. She lectured and wrote extensively on the subject of lighting design, promoting Scandinavian modernist principles; “a good light fixture must be simple, and its structure and function must be both neat and correct,” she wrote.

Architect, designer, and theorist Josef Frank was born in Austria in 1885. He became an early advocate for modernist principles alongside contemporaries such as Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. By the beginning of the 1920s, however, he began to question modernism’s growing programmatic streak, arguing instead that pluralism, not uniformity, most characterized life in the machine age. In 1933, he fled the Nazi regime, relocating permanently to Sweden. There, Frank’s softened version of modern design found a warm reception.

For more than thirty years, Frank worked as chief designer for the Stockholm-based furnishings firm Svenskt Tenn. He was responsible for a wide variety of product designs, including furniture , lighting , wallpaper, and textiles , as well as pieces specially commissioned for private interiors all over the world. Throughout his long career, Frank continuously balanced the simplicity of modernist forms with the pleasures and comforts of fine materials and rich, decorative detail.

Finnish industrial designer Paavo Tynell was born in Helsinki in 1890. During his formative years, Tynell apprenticed as a blacksmith, after which he began working for Finnish metalsmith Koru Oy. During his time there, he also studied at the Helsinki University of Industrial Arts. In 1913, he was awarded the title of master craftsman.

In 1918, Tynell co-founded the metalwork and lighting company Oy Taito Ab; his partners included Gösta Serlachius, Emil Wickström, Eric Ehrström, and Frans Nykänen. In its early years, the company focused on interior and exterior metalwork, such as statues, railings, and silverware. During the 1930s, however, the company began producing lamps for the lighting sector. Both Alvar Aalto and Kaj Franck designed for the company at the start of their soon-to-be successful careers.

Aalto and Tynell formed a long-lasting friendship that resulted in Tynell designing lighting for Aalto's company Artek, particularly for various private and public commissions like the Paimio Sanatorium (1929-33), the Savoy Restaurant (1937), and the Viipuri Library (1935). Tynell, who also designed jewelry, forged the wedding rings for Aalto and his wife, Aino Mandelin Aalto.

In 1947, Tynell began working with the New York design gallery, showroom, and restaurant Finland House, which showcased his work alongside other Finnish designers. His success in New York led to design partnerships with American lighting design companies Lightcraft and Lightolier, where he worked beside American industrial designer Gerald Thurston. During this time, his designs were marketed under the Finland House name but continued to be produced by his company in Helsinki.

Tynell worked as the CEO and chief designer of Oy Taito Ab until his retirement in 1953. The company was sold to Finnish lighting company Idman Oy, which Tynell had been cooperating with over the years. Idman restructured the company and production under the new name. Tynell designed for Iman until the mid-1960s, while also working as a freelance designer for many other companies in Finland and abroad.

Notably, during the 1950s, Tynell collaborated with architect and interior designer Aarne Ervi, who featured Tynell’s lighting designs in many of his projects, including the Tapiola Housing Project in Espoo, Finland, various private residences, and a power plant located in northern Finland.

Known for their delicate aesthetic, Tynell’s designs often utilize perforated metal and brass and reference nature through stylized leaves, vines, and snowflakes. From the 1930s throughout the 1950s, he was considered one of Finland’s most successful lighting designers, celebrated for his contributions to the Sokos Hotel and its penthouse lounge Café Vakuuna (both 1952); the office of the Secretary General of United Nations in the United States (1952-5); the Lasipalatsi building in Helsinki; and the Helsinki Central Railway Station.

Over the course of his illustrious career, Tynell received many awards and accolades, including first prize for Best Lighting Design at the American Interior Decorator’s Competition (1950), as well as recognition at the Barcelona World Exhibition (1929) and Milan’s Triennale (1933).

Tynell passed away in 1973 in Helsinki.