Iris (or Blue Iris)

Designer: Howard Smith

c. 1978

Screen-printed cotton linen

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Three identical arrangements of blue flowers in red vases are displayed against a white background. The flowers have small, light brown centers. New Jersey native Howard Smith visited Helsinki as part of a youth art festival in 1962 and soon made Finland his home. A few years later in 1967 Smith met with Rudi Berner, head of Vallila Interiors, who commissioned the artist to create several new printed textile designs for the company’s textile factory. It was a novel assignment for Smith, who had not previously worked in textile design. It is possible the commission was sparked by an exhibition of Smith’s work at the Artek shop in Helsinki earlier that year which featured appliqué textiles. In 1968, Smith produced 25 designs for Vallila of which the company implemented roughly