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82. PAINTING - AN IMAGE OF ACTION New Finnish art from the collection of the Sara Hildén
Foundation,
2 May - 17 August 1997
The summer exhibition in the Sara Hildén Art Museum
displayed the production of eleven Finnish artists from the 1980's and
1990's. The artists included Kari Cavén, Markku Keränen, Markku
Kivinen, Leena Luostarinen, Jukka Mäkelä, Tommi Mäkelä,
Antti Ojala, Silja Rantanen, Teemu Saukkonen, Marjatta Tapiola and Hannu
Väisänen. The exhibition had over 100 works on display,which
were a selection of new acquisitions of the Sara Hildén Foundation
during the past year.
Painting is thriving in Finland, although the use of new
technology and experiments with different installations have been emphasized
in new experimental art in the past few years. Painting should not be
defined narrowly as a technique or material. Following this principle,
the exhibition included not only traditional oil and tempera paintings,
but drawings, graphic art, and works constructed from wood. Their common
denominator was "painting".
"Painting as an image of action" underlines
the artist's attitude to his or her work. A painting can have many functions
in religion, politics and architecture, for examble a painting gives information
and creates an atmosphere; a painting is an ornament. But a painting can
also, and only, be an image of action without having other aims and without
having a message for the viewer. An abstract painting is typically an
image of action. The paintings in this exhibition are images of action
without being abstract. That is why they are interesting. That is why
they belong together. That is why it is sometimes difficult to relate
to them. Each of the works in the exhibition had a certain motif and often
a figure, too.
Many of the works in the exhibition comprised a suite,
i.e. a series of related paintings on a common theme. This was clearly
visible in the drawings. The same also applied to works which belonged
to a suite but which were exhibited as individual works of art. The term
"suite", however, is somewhat misleading: the artist has simply
been very inspired by a certain theme. An artist does not make a picture
diary because each day is significant, but because drawing and painting
are going smoothly. A series of sixteen drawings of a cupboard does not
celebrate the Chinese cupboard, but is, above all, a record of the artist's
immense creativity and intensity.
8,758 visitors attended the exhibition.
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