# Eva Anttila

Eva Anttila (March 30, 1894, Tampere – August 1, 1993 Espoo) was a Finnish painter and textile artist. Her work was notable for applying techniques of painting to her textile works and creating pictorial scenes.

## Biography

Anttila was born on March 30, 1894, in Tampere, Finland to Selma Anttila (née Helander), a writer, and Werner Anttila, a translator and publisher. Her brother, Leo Anttila (1903-1967) was a writer. She attended the school of the Finnish Art Society from 1913 to 1915 where she studied painting. She later graduated from the Design Department of the School of Art and Design in 1917. Anttila was married to Finnish painter Alexander Paischeff from 1917 to 1918 and Finnish artist Arttu Brummer from 1921 to 1923. She had two children, daughter Eila Pajastie, born in 1918, and son Paavo Anttila, born in 1929. Anttila was one of the first teachers of textile art in Finland, and later taught in Iceland, England, and the United States.

## Art

Anttila was a recognized painter in Finland in the 1910s, before later shifting to textile work. In the 1924 she started a private weaving studio where she began creating textiles for interiors, placing an emphasis on practicality.
After World War II, Anttila solely focused on designing tapestries. Her work with tapestries places an emphasis on texture and color, dyeing her own yarn and borrowing shading techniques from painting. She would begin her work with a rough sketch, deciding color and details as she went along.
The Bank of Finland commissioned Anttila to create a tapestry in 1952. She designed Work and Life, a nearly five meter long tapestry that depicted the shift from an agrarian society into a society focused on education and technological advancement that took place in post-war Finland.
In 1983 Anttila was awarded Textile Artist of the Year by TEXO, the Finnish Association for Textile Artists and Designers. Over 70 of her tapestries were displayed in this exhibition.

## Notable works

* Evening, 1949
* White Veil, 1950
* Profiles, 1952
* Finnish Forest, 1952
* Work and Life, 1952

## Sources

* 1 2 3 "Eva Anttila | People | Collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum". collection.cooperhewitt.org. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
* ↑ "Etusivu". kansallisbiografia.fi. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
* ↑ Korhonen, Juhani - Rantala, Risto (ed.): Finnish Writers, p. 18. Helsinki: Otava, 2004. ISBN 951-1-19094-6 .
* 1 2 3 "41 (Kuka kukin on (Aikalaiskirja) : Who's who in Finland / 1954)". runeberg.org (in Finnish). Retrieved 2020-12-01.
* ↑ "designforum.fi - Eva Anttila". 2011-07-08. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
* 1 2 3 4 Pallasmaa, Ullamaria (1983). "70 years working for textiles" (PDF). Form Function Finland. 2: 29–31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08.
* ↑ "From Sketches and Samples to Ledgers and Advertisements näkymä | Tahiti". tahiti.journal.fi. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
* ↑ "National treasures". www.rahamuseo.fi. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
* 1 2 Taide Art. "A Sense of Rising Prosperity". taide.art. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
* ↑ Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. "Hanging, Evening, 1949". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
* ↑ Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. "Hanging, White Veil, 1950". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
* ↑ Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. "Hanging, Profiles, 1952". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
* ↑ Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. "Hanging, Finnish Forest, 1952". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 30 November 2020.