MUG
Item No. ：TMCR006
Designer：Toini Muona
Maker：ARABIA
Size ：H:80mm W:111mm D:83mm
A unique wheel-thrown mug by Toini Muona.
It is made in a slightly coarse stoneware body and finished with a complex semi-matte glaze in which deep blue-green, pale purple, and brown intermingle. The strong form, with its pronounced throwing rings, together with the rich glaze effects, gives the piece a remarkable presence.
Given the likelihood that it belongs to a period when Muona was actively experimenting with glazes and foregrounding their unpredictable effects, it is thought to date from the late 1930s to around the 1940s.
Mugs by Toini Muona are rarely encountered and are particularly scarce.
Signed “TM” on the base.
In good condition with no noticeable damage.
TOINI MUONA｜1904–1987｜FINLAND
Toini Muona was one of the pioneering figures in modern Finnish ceramics and one of the leading women ceramic artists and designers of her generation.
After studying at the Higher School of Applied Arts from 1920 to 1923—an evening program associated with the Central School of Arts and Crafts—she continued at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, graduating as a designer in 1926. Already highly regarded while still a student, she was awarded a scholarship upon graduation and continued to work from the school’s ceramics studio. There, under Alfred William Finch—the Belgian-born painter and ceramic artist who laid the foundation for ceramic education in Finland—she developed her practice through wheel-throwing, firing, and continued studio work.
In 1931, she began training at Arabia, where her ability was soon recognized through her involvement in the factory’s production processes, and she was eventually invited to join the company as an artist. At a time when the role of the ceramic artist at Arabia had not yet been clearly established, Muona became the first formally affiliated artist there to have trained in ceramics at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In doing so, she opened a path for ceramic artists educated at the school to work within industry. Her success also became an important turning point in encouraging Arabia to support artist-led ceramic production more seriously, helping to pave the way for the later establishment of its art department.
As early as 1932, she completed her first collection of works, which she presented that November in her first solo exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts. That a young ceramic artist should make her debut in a museum setting testified not only to the exceptional recognition of Muona’s talent, but also marked an important moment in the growing union of art and industry.
Until her retirement from Arabia in 1970, Muona pursued ceramics with unwavering dedication, confronting the essential elements of the medium—clay, glaze, and firing—with remarkable seriousness, and continually seeking new forms of expression unconstrained by tradition or convention. Although she possessed exceptional skill on the wheel, she also incorporated hand-built and decorative methods, pushing ceramics toward a more fully sculptural mode of expression. In particular, her copper-based glazes, with their deep reds, blues, and turquoise tones, became one of the defining features of her work.
From the late 1930s onward, her work expanded toward substantial, asymmetrical forms and vases with organic contours suggestive of natural forms. In the 1940s, she pursued tall, slender vertical shapes and created vases inspired by reeds and grasses. These works, which she herself referred to as “grass,” became some of her most celebrated pieces and attracted considerable attention. In the 1950s, she developed this dialogue with plant forms further, producing relief ceramic plaques made by pressing dried plants into the clay. From the 1960s onward, her work moved toward simpler and more abstract forms, elevating ceramics into an increasingly sculptural mode of expression.
Her distinctive artistic language gained international recognition from an early stage. Long before Finnish modernism came to attract wide international attention in the 1950s, Muona had already built a presence through repeated participation in international exhibitions and a series of awards. Her work helped present Finnish ceramics to the world, and she was one of the key figures in shaping and advancing modernism within Finnish ceramic art.
She received gold medals at the Milan Triennale in 1933 and 1951, at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1935, and at the Paris World’s Fair in 1937. She was awarded an honorary prize at the 1954 Milan Triennale and received the Pro Finlandia Medal in 1957, among many other honors.
Arabia Art Department｜1932–early 1970s｜FINLAND
The Arabia Art Department was organized in 1932 by Kurt Ekholm, and its structure as a department was firmly established the following year, when Ekholm became its director.
The Art Department functioned as an independent space within the factory, providing artists with an environment for free creative work while allowing them to maintain a certain distance from industrial production. The results of this activity were fed back into industrial products through experimentation with materials, glazes, and forming techniques, creating an interaction between art and industry. It also served to embody and communicate Arabia’s cultural identity.
This philosophy was rooted in the values of craft and art emphasized by Arttu Brummer, who played a leading role at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, and was realized by artists trained there under Elsa Elenius. Ekholm’s institutionalization of the Art Department can be understood as a reorganization of this educational foundation within an industrial context.
Members of the Art Department included Toini Muona, Aune Siimes, Michael Schilkin, Birger Kaipiainen, Rut Bryk, Kyllikki Salmenhaara, and Oiva Toikka. Friedl Kjellberg, who had been working at Arabia since 1924, was one of the artists active even before the department was formally organized, and remained an important member after its establishment. In 1948, she became director of the Art Department.
The artists of the Art Department formed two major lineages: one represented by Toini Muona and Kyllikki Salmenhaara, based on wheel-thrown ceramics and glaze expression; and the other represented by Birger Kaipiainen and Rut Bryk, characterized by decorative and narrative expression using reliefs and ceramic plaques. Though contrasting in nature, both played an essential role in broadening the range and depth of expression within the Art Department.
The Art Department’s activities were also highly acclaimed in international exhibitions, receiving awards continuously from the 1930s onward, including at the Paris Exposition. At the Milan Triennale from the 1950s to 1960 in particular, Rut Bryk (1951), Kyllikki Salmenhaara (1957), and Birger Kaipiainen (1960) won the Grand Prix, while Honorable Mentions were awarded to Birger Kaipiainen, Michael Schilkin (1951), Rut Bryk, Toini Muona, and Kyllikki Salmenhaara (1954), and Aune Siimes received a Gold Medal in 1954. Kyllikki Salmenhaara in particular became a key figure in establishing the Art Department’s international standing, winning awards in four consecutive Triennales between 1951 and 1960, including the Grand Prix.
In the early 1970s, following an organizational restructuring, the Art Department’s name and function were transferred to the Atelier department, marking the end of its role as an independent department.
Its philosophy continues today and is carried on in the activities of the Art Department Society.
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