Still extraordinarily fresh and provocative after more than fifty years - the world of furnishings by the Finnish designers Alvar and Aino Aalto.

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (1898-1976), the most important Finnish architect of the twentieth century, was also one of the most noteworthy modern furniture designers. His bentwood Paimio Chair is regarded along with comparable seating furniture by Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Charles Eames as one of the incunabula of twentieth-century design. His complete system of furniture-including stools, chairs, armchairs, and tea trolley with oversized wheels, all characterized by curving lines-was considered exemplary and acquired by the New York Museum of Modern Art as early as 1938. In collaboration with his first wife Aino Marsio (1894-1949), he also designed organic, floral forms in glass. His legendary Savoy Vase of 1936, created for the hotel of the same name, and the group of bowls designed to be combined to form the "Aalto Flower" have often been compared to sculptures and paintings of Classical Modernism. This extensive publication presents the pioneering furniture, glass objects, and lamps of Alvar and Aino Aalto in a large selection of photographs, paintings, drawings, and sketches.