■ CERAMIC PLATTER WITH FLOWER MOTIF, by Birger Kaipiainen for Arabia, Finland, circa 1970s-1980s, the oval earthenware body decorated in iridescent polychrome glaze with a single large stylised blossom of concentric scalloped petals radiating from the centre, the petals worked in gradations of lavender, violet, blue and pearl against a narrow brick-red border of fine dotted ornament at the rim, the heart of the blossom filled with a densely massed cluster of small black ceramic beads applied by hand - the jewelled sculptural treatment for which Kaipiainen had become known in his late Arabia work.
Good condition consistent with age and use, with minor glaze spots consistent with the ware and with the hand-finished character of the decoration; no chips, cracks or restoration. Length 41 cm (16 ⅛ inches); width 36 cm (14 ⅛ inches).
The reverse signed Birger Kaipiainen and impressed with the Arabia Finland factory mark.
Birger Kaipiainen (Pori, 1915 - Helsinki, 1988) was among the most singular ceramicists of the Scandinavian postwar period and a long-tenured member of the Arabia Art Department alongside Rut Bryk and Kaj Franck. He was awarded the Grand Prix at the Milan Triennale XII in 1960, and his decorative vocabulary - drawn from Byzantine mosaic, medieval manuscript illumination and a personal reading of ornament as a structural rather than applied element - set him apart from the restraint characteristic of his Arabia contemporaries. Works by the artist are held in the permanent collections of the Design Museum, Helsinki, and the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
See also:
□ Item #00012. Birger Kaipiainen Butterfly Plate.