Rut Bryk 1916–1999
Finnish artist Rut Bryk is widely regarded as a critical proponent of reforming modern Finnish ceramic art; her body of work, however, spanned printmaking and textile design for a legacy of merging art, craft, and design. Bryk attended the Central School of Industrial Crafts in Helsinki, graduating in 1939. Her career in ceramics began when she joined the Art Department of Arabia, Finland in 1942. Her earliest ceramic works and objects feature figurative motifs but by the 1960s she turned to abstract modular compositions composed of tiles. Soon thereafter, Bryk’s abstract compositions grew in scale as they were used in architectural settings; architectural works by Bryk include City in the Sun in Helsinki’s City Hall (1975), The Money Tree at Bank of Finland, Helsinki (1980) and Ice Flow in the Presidential residence, Helsinki (1987-1991).
Aside from her own ceramic works, Bryk also collaborated with her husband Tapio Wirkkala, designing decorative motifs from many of his tableware designs. Rut Bryk’s works can be found in museums around the world, including Design Museum, Helsinki, Danish Museum of Art and Design, Copenhagen and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
