Reidar Särestöniemi – Picasso from the North
Modern Masters Helsinki presents two exceptional works by Reidar Särestöniemi. Reidar Särestöniemi displayed a broad, profound and powerful grasp of nature. This is an artist who shunned all hustle and bustle, instead repeatedly accepting the invitation to withdraw to the peaceful natural surroundings of Lapland. There was no option of urban comfort for an artist who characterised the countryside as a sine qua non of living, and the full force of natural surroundings come to the fore in his paintings. While his colours tend to be captivatingly powerful like the splendour of the Lapland countryside at its most impressive, his wintry birch grove scenes are garbed in a palpably frosty white cloak where the glistening pastel shades of the icy heavens crown a serene harmony of white, black and grey. Relating to the cold and darkness of winter was nevertheless not easy for this artist, with an affinity for the season coming only in his later years.
The integral aspects of Särestöniemi’s works are by no means limited to powerful depictions of nature and they include a generous measure of mystery and levels of meaning, together with a great deal of searching introspection. With its living creatures and components, nature reflects the artist’s inner world, creating an endless depth of fascination with his works.
Already from the 1970s onwards, Särestöniemi began to express concern for the fate of nature, with questions of conservation rising to the fore. These are questions that loom larger than ever nowadays.
For more information and additional condition reports please contact our expert Laura Pohjola:
Art expert, Laura Pohjola, laura.pohjola@bukowskis.com, 0400 46 45 76