Greta Skogster-Lehtinen (1900-1994)
textile artist and designer
Greta Skogster-Lehtinen completed her secondary schooling in a Swedish-language high school in Hämeenlinna, South Finland. The architect Armas Lindgren, a friend of the family, encouraged the young lady, with her interest in crafts and art, to apply to study at the Ateneum, the Central School of Arts and Crafts in Helsinki. She studied at the school’s pattern drawing department from 1916 to 1920, and in 1921 she attended a weaving course at the Fredrika Wetterhoff school of crafts in Hämeenlinna.
Skogster-Lehtinen established her first weaving workshop in her home town of Hämeenlinna in 1921. It operated until 1929. At the same time, she prepared designs for the Kotiahkeruus-Hemflit company, where she was artistic director from 1924 until 1929. Throughout her career she specifically designed textiles for interior decoration. On a study trip to Paris in the early 1920s, she was introduced to tapestry techniques and she began to make tapestries in her own weaving studio. Along with Eva Anttila, she was a forerunner of tapestry-making techniques in Finland.
She kept a weaving studio and textile office in Helsinki from 1929 to 1935. After marrying William Lehtinen, a prominent figure in business and industry, she moved to Enso in East Finland, where she established a weaving studio in 1935. The outbreak of the Finnish-Soviet Winter War in the autumn of 1939 made it necessary to leave Enso. The weaving studio and textile office were moved to Helsinki, where they operated until 1975.
Greta Skogster-Lehtinen designed for various companies, damasks for the Tampella mills, curtains for the Barker firm, and carpets for the Aaltonen company, Järvenpään Plyyshi- ja mattotehdas and the Olsen mills in Denmark. She also designed interior decoration textiles for Parliament House, the Vaakuna Hotel and the Kalastajatorppa Hotel in Helsinki, and for Enso-Gutzeit´s head office in Helsinki and for office and meeting facilities in Enso. Upon the request of the architect Alvar Aalto, she designed textiles for passenger ships (including the m/s. Aurora, Atlanta, Finnboard and Finntrader) in the 1950s and 1960s.
Skogster-Lehtinen’s best-known interior textile is the so-called birchbark wall covering. It was made in 1942, during the war, for the Kestikartano restaurant in Helsinki, where the interior was designed by the architect Aarne Ervi. The wall covering was woven from the materials available under wartime conditions: birchbark, greaseproof paper and bast. The wall covering became a kind of symbol of Finnish applied art of the war years.
Tapestries and church textiles were an integral aspect of Skogster-Lehtinen’s oeuvre. She designed tapestries for the Hämeenlinna City Council rooms, the OTK Cooperatives’ head office in Helsinki (1932-1933), Kotka City Hall (1938), the office of the president of the Enso-Gutzeit company, and the office of the managing director of the Arabia company, among other locations. Her textiles are to be found in at least the following churches in Finland: Paavalin kirkko (Church of St Paul) Helsinki (1931), Mikael Agricola Church, Helsinki (1935), Kanneljärvi Church (1934), the Jyväskylä Funeral Chapel (1930), Martin kirkko (Church of St Martin), Turku (1933), Rajamäki Church (1938), Kotka Church (1958), Myllykoski Church, Ähtäri Church and Kolmen ristin kirkko (Church of the Three Crosses) at Tainionkoski.
Starting with the Barcelona World’s Fair of 1929, Greta Skogster-Lehtinen attended in numerous international exhibitions. Barcelona was followed by the Milan Triennial of 1933 and world’s fairs of Brussels, Paris and New York in 1935, 1937 and 1939. In these showings, her works were awarded Grand Prixes. She held her first solo exhibition in Turku in 1927 together with the textile designer Laila Karttunen. In the following year, she exhibited in an art dealership in Stockholm together with the Swedish ceramist Tyra Lundgren, who worked as a designer for the Arabia factory in Finland from time to time. Skogster-Lehtinen had solo exhibitions in Helsinki at the Salon Strindberg in 1931 and the Museum of Applied Arts in 1933. Her works have been included in several exhibitions held by the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design and she received the Society’s Pro Arte Utili Medal in 1950.
In 1968, Greta Skogster-Lehtinen and her husband William Lehtinen established the Greta and William Lehtinen Foundation. The Foundation supports the arts and furthers domestic and international cultural contacts by awarding grants.
Auli Suortti-Vuorio
Bibliography
Enbom, Carla, Close to Nature. In: Visions of Modern Finnish Design. Edited by Anne Stenros. Keuruu 1999.
Priha, Päikki, From Weave to Fibre. In: Visions of Modern Finnish Design. Edited by Anne Stenros. Keuruu 1999.
Interview with Greta Skogster-Lehtiinen by Leena Svinhufvud 11.12.1989. Transcribed by Tuula Pennanen. Design Museum Helsinki.
Photos:
The Birchbark Wall Covering (1942)
In 1942, the Kestikartano restaurant was opened in the centre of Helsinki. Its interior design, in the spirit of the Kalevala epic, was by the architect Aarne Ervi. Greta Skogster-Lehtinen wove the so-called birchbark wall covering for the restaurant in her own studio. The wall covering became a symbol of applied art of the years of shortages. It was made of narrow strips of birchbark, paper string and greaseproof paper. Photo Design Museum
Tapestry ”The Old Enso Mills and their Surroundings” (1935)
The tapestry portrays the old mills of the Enso-Gutzeit company at Enso in Jääski. This area was ceded to the Soviet Union after the Second World War. The tapestry was commissioned by Enso-Gutzeit and it was hung in the board meeting room. Photo Pietinen / Design Museum
Tapestry for Kotka City Hall (1938)
The City of Kotka commissioned this tapestry for new city hall, built in 1935 according to the designs of the architect Erkki Huttunen. The tapestry was made in 1938 and was hung in the city council meeting room. Photo Design Museum
Woollen carpet (1930s?)
A new applied arts products introduced in the 1920s was the wool or hair carpet. These carpets were made by small weaving firms for both homes and public facilities. Photo Design Museum
