Eva Anttila (1894-1993)
textile designer
Eva Anttila was both a painter and a textile designer. Breaking down the boundaries of visual art and textile design, she began to specialize in tapestries in the late 1920s.
Eva Anttila matriculated in 1913 and spent the next academic year studying at the school of the Finnish Fine Arts Association. She graduated from the design department of the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1917. From 1914 to1916, she attended the art classes of the University of Helsinki and completed a weaving course at the Fredrika Wetterhoff school of crafts in Hämeenlinna in 1917.
Though beginning her career as a painter, Anttila became a designer for the Kotiteollisuus Pirtti applied art firm. In 1924, she designed and wove her first tapestry work entitled “Primavera”, inspired by Botticelli’s famous painting. Around this time, Anttila established her own weaving firm, where she made textiles for interior decoration and everyday use alongside her tapestries. She also painted throughout the 1930s. With the outbreak of the Fenno-Soviet Winter War in late 1939, Anttila closed her weaving firm as unprofitable and began to concentrate from the beginning of the 1940s on tapestries. It was characteristic of her manner of working that she wanted to attend to the whole tapestry-making process herself. She made the sketches and working plans, dyed the yarn, wove and finished the work.
A typical feature of Eva Anttila’s tapestries is the way in which they are based on the material and the structure of the textile. They have a highly vivid texture lacking large, smooth planes. The vivid surface is achieved with means such as changes of weave, yarn of varying thickness and gradations of colour and hue. The role of colour as stylistic means gained weight in the early 1960s, although Anttila had already carried out bold experiments with colour in the 1930s. Themes central to her works were celebrations, court life, religious events, female figures, the city, forests and fairy-tales.
Most of Eva Anttila’s tapestries are in public spaces. Juhannustulet (Midsummer Bonfire) from 1937 is in the Presidential Palace in Helsinki; Vuorisaarna (The Sermon on the Mount, 1946) belongs to the Kalevankangas Funeral Chapel in Tampere; Työ ja elämä (Work and Life, 1951) is in the Bank of Finland; and Teatteri elää (Living Theatre) is in the Turku City Theatre.
Alongside tapestries, Eva Anttila made ecclesiastical textiles, for the churches of Perniö and Sonkajärvi, among others. She also taught tapestry techniques in Iceland, Great Britain and the United States. From 1926 to 1928, she taught at the Central School of Arts and Crafts before it established its department of textile design.
Beginning with the Barcelona World’s Fair of 1929, Eva Anttila’s tapestries represented Finland in international exhibitions, where they were awarded prizes. She received the Grand Prix in Barcelona and a gold medal at the Milan Triennial of 1933, as well as diplomas at the Brussels World’s Fair of 1935 and the Paris World’s Fair of 1937. In 1971, Eva Anttila received the honorary award of the Finnish Cultural Foundation in recognition of the life’s work. In 1983, she was awarded the title of Textile Designer of the Year. She was 89 at the time and still professionally active.
Eva Anttila held her first solo exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts in Helsinki in 1931, which was followed by numerous showings both in Finland and abroad. Her memorial exhibition, entitled Satumaa (Land of Fable) was held in 1994 at the Museum of Applied Art (present-day Design Museum) in Helsinki and at the Tampere Art Museum the next year.
Auli Suortti-Vuorio
Bibliography:
Eva Anttila. Tekstiilitaiteilija. Textile Artist. 1894-1993. Exhibition catalogue. Toimitus / Editor Marianne Aav. Teksti / Text Kirsti Salo-Mattila. Helsinki 1994.
Pallasmaa, Ullamaria, Eva Anttila. ”Textile Artist of the Year”. 70 years working for textiles. Form Function Finland, volume 2 / 1983
Photos:
”Evening in the City”, tapestry (1944-1945)
This tapestry is clearly more modern in both its theme and execution than the nationalist textile art of the 1930s. The urban theme refers to a new, modern era and the technique of the work is new. The figures of the tapestry are translucent and overlapping and are set off with contours. This means of style alludes to Cubism and Futurism. Photo Design Museum
”Work and Life”, tapestry (1951)
This large tapestry (200 x 480 cm) is in the Bank of Finland in Helsinki. Eva Anttila travelled in Norway in the late 1940s and the influence of Norwegian fresco painting can be seen in this work. The tapestry also contains Cubist-Futurist features, like “Evening in the City”. Photo Design Museum
"Carneval”, tapestry (1954)
Celebrations are a theme that fascinated Eva Anttila throughout her career. In her works on festivities and court life, women are the dominant figures. Men are in minor roles and are used to underscore the importance and status of the female figures. “Carneval” was made in 1954 and is kept at the crafts-teacher section of the Teacher Training Institute of the University of Helsinki. The tapestry measures 120 x 242 cm. Photo Design Museum
