Runar Engblom (1908-1965)
furniture designer
Runar Engblom studied at the department of furniture design of the Central School of Arts and Crafts in the years 1925-1929. After graduating, he went on the study the piano at the Helsinki Conservatory of Music under Professor Ernst Linko. His friends recalled that he could just as well have followed a career as a pianist, or in painting as he also went on to study at the School of the Finnish Fine Arts Academy between 1933 and 1935. Engblom wanted, nonetheless, to become a furniture designer, and most of his furniture designs were one-off items made to order. In the 1930s, however, he designed on a freelance basis for the Asko furniture company, in addition to designing a few models for the Boman firm. Immediately after the war, he also designed furniture for the Swedish Crafts Association in Stockholm.
Runar Engblom played an important role in teaching and educating new generations of designers. It has been said that he was able to sense talent in students and would encourage them in their studies. His students gave him the nickname “Skåpe”. From 1935 until 1951, Engblom was an instructor in composition, ornamental drawing and free-hand drawing at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (reorganized as the Institute of Industrial Arts in 1949). In addition, he lectured in composition drawing at the institute from 1951 until 1964 and taught furniture design at the Helsinki University of Technology in the years 1947-1950.
Interior design for public facilities was a prominent aspect of Engblom’s oeuvre. In 1937, he designed the furniture of the chancellor’s office, chancellery department and student cafeteria of the new administration building of the University of Helsinki, followed by the interior of the library of the University’s so-called Forest Building in 1939. Engblom prepared the interior design of the Tullinpuomi restaurant in Helsinki in 1941. In the 1940s, he also designed furniture for the HOK cooperatives’ restaurant and the Vaakuna restaurant, also in Helsinki. The Main Post Office building in Helsinki was completed in 1938, with Engblom as one of its interior designers. Furniture of individual design was also created by Engblom for the head offices of a number of corporations, banks and libraries.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Engblom designed glass for the Riihimäki, Karhula and Kumela glassworks. His best-known work in silver is the crozier of the Bishop of the Diocese of Lapua from 1956, but he also designed silver items at least for the Evangelical-Lutheran congregation of Liljendal and church textiles for the congregations of Muhos, Korpilahti, Rymättylä and Varpaisjärvi. In 1929, the main prize of the annual lottery of the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design was a silver coffee service designed by Engblom and made by the Taito firm. Engblom also designed a number of textiles, including woven ryas, for various purposes.
Runar Engblom’s works were on display at numerous exhibitions of applied art both in Finland and abroad. He received a silver medal and an honorary mention at the Paris World’s Fair in 1937, and the Pro Finlandia medal in 1958.
Engblom retired for reasons of health from his position as lecturer at the Institute of Industrial Arts in 1964, and he died in September 1965. The Amos Anderson Art Museum in Helsinki and the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design staged a memorial exhibition in his honour in late 1967. In the exhibition catalogue, his friend, the interior architect Olof Ottelin, wrote: “Runar Engblom was one of those persons for whom art was a cult, a religion. He achieved almost legendary status in his teaching work at the Institute of Industrial Arts. --- There were few who were able to establish a contact with his students like he did, and few teachers followed the progress of their students after graduation in the same manner.”
Auli Suortti-Vuorio
Bibliography:
Runar Engblom. Muistonäyttely Amos Andersonin taidemuseossa 22.11.-10.12.1967. Minnesutställning i Amos Andersons konstmuseum 22.11.-10.12.1967. Layout: Erik Bruun. Exhibition catalogue.
Ateneum Maskerad. Taideteollisuuden muotoja ja murroksia. Toim. Pia Strandman. Taideteollinen korkeakoulu. Helsinki 1999.
Huovio, Ilkka, Invitation from the Future. Treatise of the Roots of the School of Arts and Crafts and its Development into a University Level School 1871-1973. Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 1998
Photos:
Dining-room furniture, 1944
Designed by Engblom and made by the Vallilan Puusepäntehdas company, this set of dining-room furniture of birch was the main prize of the 1944 lottery of the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design. Photo Design Museum
The Memorial Exhibition, 1967
The Runar Engblom memorial exhibition was jointly arranged in Helsinki by the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design and the Amos Anderson Art Museum on 22 November – 10 December 1967 with the museum as its venue. The furniture shown here was owned by the vocal artist Sylvelin Långholm, a close friend of the designer, and was made by the Invalid Foundation of Finland. Photo Design Museum
Crozier, 1956
The crozier of the Diocese of Lapua is the best-known example of ecclesiastical objects designed by Runar Engblom. Made in 1956, the crozier consists of three parts, with ebony and silver as its main materials. At the junction of the handle and the staff there is a four-sided ornamental feature with chased-gold symbolic motifs in relief: the monogram of Christ, the burning bush symbolizing the presence of God, the gable of the old Church of Pohjankyrö and the old seal of the Congregation of Lapua. Smoky topazes from Kuortane are set in the ornamental part and the cross in the centre of the handle. The gold and silver of the crozier were mined at Outokumpu in Eastern Finland. Photo Design Museum
