Kirsti Rantanen (1930-2020) Finnish, Vintage tapestry designed in 1967 having a mid-century modern/abstract design in various cool colors. Named "Kosiomatka" ("Honeymoon" in Finnish) depicting the form of a bride when viewed vertically and a courting scene when viewed horizontally. Signed and labeled on reverse. 

Condition: Never removed from storage. Very good condition. 

Size: 72 1/2 x 26 1/2 in.

#2338 #22 . 

Kirsti Annikki Rantanen (nee Widing) was born on January 27th, 1930 in Viipuri, which was the second largest city in Finland until it was ceded to the Soviet Union at the end of the Winter War in 1940. During Finland’s involvement with the Axis Powers her family fled to Esloo, on the southern coast. A key tenet of Lutheranism, the majority religion of Scandinavia, is literacy (since one must be able to read the Bible in their native language), so Rantanen never lacked for education despite the turmoil during her youth. After World War II she attended the Aalto University School of Arts, Design, and Architecture, captivated early on by printed fabrics. In the 1950s, however, she shifted focus to designing furniture and large-scale woven textiles, gathering inspiration from travels throughout Africa and Asia with her husband. Her work, highly experimental at the time, was selected for exhibition in the United States in 1959, and was instrumental in validating the textile industry as an art field in Finland, when it was previously considered simply a vocation for poorer rural workers, mainly women. Along with her daughter, the painter Silja Rantanen, she went on to teach at Aalto University, creating a new generation of textile artists, and although her work was virtually unknown outside Finland until the late 1990s she gained recognition in the new Millenium. She passed away on September 14th, 2020 in Helsinki, with over seventy years of work to her name and pieces in private collections and public exhibits throughout her homeland.

Never removed from storage. Very good condition.