The company which operated for five years laid the foundation for the emergence of Finnish design.
Porvoo Museum’s new exhibition Phenomenal Iris presents the company Aktiebolaget Iris, which operated in Porvoo at the turn of the century. The exhibition in Holm House and the Old Town Hall gives a comprehensive review of the work of the company and the artists that led it, in Porvoo and in the world.
AB Iris operated in the years 1897–1902 and it manufactured furniture and ceramics. The company was founded in the spirit of the Arts and Crafts movement as a response to the factory-produced unaesthetic and low-quality products that resulted from rapid industrialisation. It was the first art industrial business to use this approach in Finland.
”AB Iris operated for only five years, but despite the short time it became a phenomenon. It revolutionized Finnish design and its high quality artisanal products were the height of Jugendstil in Finland. The colours of the Iris ceramics were innovative and bold,” says the museum director Johanna Lehto-Vahtera.
The company had a shop in Helsinki, but production took place in Porvoo. At its height the factory employed 60 workers and subcontracted numerous artisans in the area.
The continually growing Iris collection is one of the oldest and most significant in Porvoo Museum. It is a key collection both in Finland and internationally. The Phenomenal Iris exhibition contains material that has not been shown before.
Artists In Charge
AB Iris was an artist-led business. The artistic director and furniture designer was the Swedish artist Louis Sparre, who had been invited to Finland by Axel Gallén. Sparre in turn recruited the English artist Alfred William Finch to lead the ceramics department. Finch brought with him new ideas, such as a new colour scheme for ceramic products.
Louis Sparre was enamoured with Finland, and he was one of the artists of the era that searched for Finnishness and strengthened nationalism through art. The art of A. W. Finch was influenced by French Neo-Impressionism. Artworks by Sparre and Finch are exhibited in the main room of the Old Town Hall.
”Paintings by A.W. Finch play with colours, and Louis Sparre depicted shifts in light with great sensitivity. Both also worked with printmaking and their love for the unique Old Porvoo is visible in the works,” describes museum lector Margaretha Jämbäck.
In Holm House the exhibition takes the visitors to the history of Iris, and to the world of furniture design and tiled stoves. The Old Town Hall exhibits Iris ceramics and an interior decorated with a set of furniture from Porvoo. In the main room of the Old Town Hall you can find visual arts by Louis Sparre and A. W. Finch.
