Modern Art & Design Presents Veikko Keränen
Bukowskis presents Veikko Keränen at this autumn's live auction, Modern Art & Design – The leading live auction for modern art and design in the Nordics.
“There is also a time dimension in sculpture. It is in motion, moving in several directions at once. That’s how it finds its balance.”– Veikko Keränen
Veikko Keränen (1935–2004) was a Swedish-Finnish sculptor deeply rooted in the classical modernist tradition. Working in materials such as bronze, stone, wood, and metal, his art is characterized by a profound sensitivity to form, space, and movement.
Keränen was born in Finland in 1935 but came to Sweden as a war child in 1944. He was placed with a family in Lycksele, where, at the age of nine, he began carving small wooden figures in the boiler room—a way to express himself when the language around him was still foreign. As an adult, he chose to remain in Sweden, a decision that would shape both his life and his artistic career.
His artistic journey began with music. He discovered jazz early on, learned to play the saxophone, and toured for several years as a musician. The rhythm, improvisation, and balance between structure and freedom that define jazz would later reappear as central themes in his sculpture.
After his musical years, Keränen studied at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, specializing in silversmithing, and continued his education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts from 1962 to 1967. There he became part of a dynamic artistic milieu under professors Arne Jones, Asmund Arle, and Bror Hjorth, alongside fellow students such as Lena Cronqvist, Lars Hillersberg, and Ernst Nordin.
Keränen’s artistic language evolved into a deeply personal form of expression. His works clearly reflect the influence of European modernism, and he felt a kinship with artists such as Constantin Brancusi, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Arp, and Henri Matisse. At times he lived and worked in France and Italy, where he drew inspiration from both tradition and contemporary art.
One of his friends, the art critic Thomas Millroth, described his creative process like this: “Veikko Keränen sculpted by removing. Outside his studio, he showed me a rather large piece of black diabase that he had just begun to carve. ‘This one,’ he said, pointing to it, ‘I think will be about’—and then he mentioned the name of a jazz musician. I only saw the stone and the fresh marks of his tools, but he could already see what he needed to remove so that what was hidden could emerge.”
Keränen created around thirty public sculptures across Sweden. He is also represented in several Nordic museums, including Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and in collections throughout Europe, Australia, and the United States.
After his passing in 2004, his studio in Näsby Park was emptied. The sculptures have since been stored untouched—a silent treasure encompassing a lifetime of artistic creation. From this collection, a selection has now been made for the current auction, spanning more than forty years of work and bearing witness to an artist who constantly sought balance—between space and movement, between form and freedom.
Additional sculptures from the collection will be presented in the themed online auction Veikko Keränen – A Life in Sculpture, November 11–20.
To the catalogue
The collection will be sold at Modern Art & Design
Catalogue online November 4
Viewing November 12–17, Berzelii Park 1, Stockholm
Live auction November 18–19, Arsenalsgatan 2, Stockholm
Read more about Modern Art & Design
All the Works in the Collection at Modern Art & Design
Requests & condition reports
Stockholm
Louise Wrede
Head of Art Department, Specialist Contemporary Art, Private Sales
+46 (0)739 40 08 19
Stockholm
Andreas Rydén
Head Specialist, Art, Deputy Managing Director
+46 (0)728 58 71 39
