Laila Karttunen: Life’s Colourful Tapestry

Laila Karttunen (1895–1981) counts among the pioneers of Finnish textile art. As an artist, she had a strong interest in time, exploring the past and experimenting with the new. This exhibition will offer a complete survey of Karttunen’s career, comprising everything from sketches to rya rugs, oil paintings and textile art works.

The artist spent many decades in Hämeenlinna, working as teacher, designer and later artistic director of the Wetterhoff Craft School. Hämeenlinna Art Museum’s collection today encompasses a bequest of some 2,000 of her sketches, oil paintings and textile artworks.

A wide-ranging career saw Laila Karttunen pursue numerous creative interests, including research into traditional textiles and the latest developments in art. Karttunen, whose work was recognised with a Milan Triennial gold medal, was a leading light in the Finnish applied arts scene. She was able to effortlessly incorporate international influences, such as cubism and op art into her own artistic practice. In her deft hands, tapestries became a form of contemporary art and were firmly established as part of Finland’s arts heritage. “Yarn is my paint,” Laila Karttunen is known to have said of her art.

2025 marks the 130th anniversary of this remarkable artist’s birth.