Liisi Beckmann

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Liisi Beckmann
Kirvu, Viipuri Province, Finland
Died9 August 2004(2004-08-09) (aged 79)
Orimattila
, Finland
Occupations
  • designer
  • artist

Liisi Beckmann (7 December 1924 – 9 August 2004) was a Finnish designer and artist primarily active in Italy from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. Examples of her work are held in the collections of the

Triennale Design Museum in Milan. Her most celebrated design was the Karelia chair, first produced by Zanotta in 1966.[1][2]

Life and career

She was born Liisi Marjatta Meronen on her parents' farm in

milinary and clothing course, but unbeknownst to her father, also took courses at the Academy of Fine Arts which occupied the same building. She married Hans Beckmann in 1946. Their early married life was spent between Helsinki, Virenoja, and Lübeck in her husband's native Germany. The marriage was not a success and the couple soon began living apart. However, they did not divorce until 1957, and she retained his surname throughout her life.[1]

Beckmann moved to Milan in 1957 where she worked in the development studio of

Triennale Design Museum in 2016.[4][5]

In the late 1960s Beckmann settled in Cassano d'Adda in the outskirts of Milan. She gradually withdrew from designing in the mid-1970s and devoted herself to painting and sculpture. During this period she had a solo exhibition at the Galleria di Naviglio in Milan and exhibited her sculptures Liszt and Marconi at the Rome Quadriennale.[6] Another sculpture from this period, Homo Erectus, is held in the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.[7] Beckmann spent the last years of her life in Finland and died in Orimattila at the age of 79. A retrospective exhibition of her work was held at the Palazzo Berva in Cassano d'Adda in 2015.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Cerea, Chiara (14 March 2015). "Liisi Beckmann". La Stampa. Retrieved 26 October 2018 (in Italian).
  2. ^ Domus (1973). 45 ans d'architecture, design, art: Musée des arts décoratifs, Pavillon de Marsan, Palais du Louvre, Paris, 31 mai-23 septembre 1973 Volume 1 (exhibition catalog)
  3. ^ Pirozzi, Francesca (June 2016) "Angelica, Bradamante... and the others: a convention at the Triennale Exhibition in Milan to discover women's thought in contemporary creativity". Territorio della Ricerca su Insediamenti e Ambiente. Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II. Retrieved 26 October 2018 (in Italian).
  4. s.n. (May 2007). "In the Modern World". Dwell
    , p. 64.
  5. ^ Lusiardi, Federica (7 April 2016). "21st Milan Triennale Exhibition “Design after design”". Inexhibit. Retrieved 26 October 2018 (in Italian).
  6. ^ La Quadriennale di Roma. "Opere di Liisi Beckmann: Liszt e Marconi". Retrieved 26 October 2018 (in Italian).
  7. ^ Moderna Museet. "Homo Erectus, 1973". Retrieved 26 October 2018.

Further reading

  • Cerea, Chiara (2017). "La Carelia nel cuore: Liisi Beckmann" in Raimonda Riccini (ed.) Angelica e Bradamante le donne del design, pp. 65–76. Il Poligrafo (in Italian)
  • Glorian koti (May 2009). "Liisi Beckmann: Karelia-tuolin suunnittelijan värikäs elämä" (Liisi Beckmann: The colorful life of the Karelia chair designer), pp. 92–96 (in Finnish).
  • Pansera, Anty (2011). Nientedimeno. Nothing Less. The strength of female design. (exhibition catalog Biblioteca di Santa Maria incoronata, Milan, April 8-22, 2011). Allemandi & Co.
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