BIRGER KAIPIAINEN

Birger Kaipiainen is one of Finland’s best-known ceramic artists. After graduating from the Central School of Arts and Crafts, he went to work for Arabia and worked as a designer at the Arabia factory for over fifty years. His skilful and refined work inspired his contemporaries to call him the “prince of ceramics” and the “king of decorators.”

Kaipiainen's work played a large part in Finland’s global recognition within the field of modern applied art. In 1960 for the Milan Trienniale exhibition, he designed a group of bead birds set against a background of a monumental Finnish landscape. Kaipiainen’s birds and the exhibition design both won a Grand Prix. At the end of the 1960s, he designed Arabia's famous dishware collections Paratiisi and Apila. Paratiisi dishes combine well-defined and controlled shapes with rich decoration, achieving a beauty that never fails to inspire. The Apila range is decorated with verdant green clover leaves and illustrates the full force of the creative energy of the artist. Apila, which was reintroduced into the Arabia collection in 2006, is still a very popular and much-loved tableware collection today. Kaipiainen's designs received many awards and earned him the honorary title of Professor in 1977. In 1981, Kaipiainen received a state pension, but nevertheless continued to work in his studio at the Arabia factory almost every day.