Nanny Still

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Nanny Still-McKinney
Nanny Still in 1960
Nanny Still in 1960
Born
Nanny Elisabet Still

(1926-07-31)31 July 1926[1]
Helsinki, Finland
Died7 May 2009(2009-05-07) (aged 82)[1]
Brussels, Belgium
Known forGlass design
Spouse
George Clagett McKinney
​
​
(m. 1958)​

Nanny Elisabet Still-McKinney (31 July 1926 — 7 May 2009), best known professionally by her maiden name Nanny Still, was a Finnish industrial designer and glass artist, and one of the country's most influential designers of the post-war period.[1][2]

Career

Nanny Still studied design at the Central School of Industrial Arts in Helsinki (now part of the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture) from 1945 to 1949.[1]

Straight after graduation she joined the design team at Riihimäki Glass, as only their second woman designer, and remained associated with Riihimäki for over quarter of a century, until 1976 when the factory stopped producing artisanal glass.[3][4][5] Afterwards she designed for many manufacturers in and outside of Finland, including Rosenthal of Germany.[5]

Still's Harlekiini series (1958)

Her perhaps best known glass tableware design is the 1958 Harlekiini of simple geometric shapes in a deep Mediterranean blue.[5]

Still drew attention from early on with her bold use of colours and unconventional shapes.[1][4] She also became recognised for her technical know-how and mastery of manufacturing methods.[3]

Although best known for glass, Still designed over her long and varied career a wide range of items, from crockery and cutlery to jewellery.[1]

From the 1990s onwards, Still worked mostly on glass sculptures creating utilising in particular the pâte de verre casting technique.[1]

Recognition

In 1972, Still received the Pro Finlandia [fi] medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland.[6]

Some of her designs are included in the collections of the British Museum,[7] MoMA[8] and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.[9]

Major retrospective exhibitions of Still's oeuvre were held at least in Belgium (1995, 2006), Finland (1996, 2001) and Hungary (1998).[5][1][10]

Personal life

In 1958, Nanny Still married American engineer George C. McKinney, the European and Middle East director of the Virginia Port Authority, and the following year the couple settled in Brussels, where Still lived the rest of her life.[1][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Still, Nanny". Uppslagsverket.fi (in Swedish). Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  2. ^ Kuka Kukin On (Who's Who). Helsinki: Otava. 1974. p. 917.
  3. ^ a b "Still-McKinney, Nanny (1926-2009)". Kansallisbiografia.fi (in Finnish). National Biography of Finland. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  4. ^ a b c Hales, Linda (18 October 2003). "Nanny Still's Epic Glass". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d "Still, Nanny". BLF.fi (in Swedish). Biografiskt Lexikon för Finland. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  6. ^ "SUOMEN LEIJONAN PRO FINLANDIA -MITALIN SAAJAT 1945-2021". Ritarikunnat.fi (in Finnish). The Orders of the White Rose of Finland and the Lion of Finland. 9 October 2020. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  7. ^ "Nanny Still". BritishMuseum.org. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Nanny Still". MoMA.org. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  9. ^ "Results for Nanny Still". MetMuseum.org. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  10. ^ "Nanny Still, Ambassador of Design". Design Museum Gent. Retrieved 3 April 2022.

Further reading

  • Koivisto, Kaisa: Glass by Nanny Still: skymaiden (Finnish Glass Museum, 2003)
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