Hannu Väisänen: Rose Window
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
November 29, 2024 – January 12, 2025
A compositional scheme structured around an off-center circle is the uniting feature of the paintings in Hannu Väisänen’s latest exhibition. The artist describes his new works using the term tondo, which refers to a circular painting or relief. Tondi was popular, especially in high Renaissance painting, but Hannu Väisänen draws his inspiration from a very different source. Circular compositions have grown familiar to him through his many years of painting and decorating plates and bowls. He finds the round form inspiring, especially as plates are not intended to be viewed from any specific direction: they are always viewed in the round. In this new series of paintings, Hannu Väisänen rotated each piece several times during the painting process to decide which would be top and bottom. Although each tondo is sketched many times on paper before being transferred to canvas, Hannu Väisänen consciously avoids creating perfect circles drawn with a compass.
Hannu Väisänen’s paintings refer indirectly to nature, their shapes and colors drawing inspiration from coral reefs, mossy surfaces, the belly skin of a stingray, or the tail a peacock spider performing a courtship dance. Although his compositions are rooted in nature and its wondrous details, his paintings are never purely representational. Instead, they consciously blur the line between the abstract and the figurative. With circular compositions constituting a leitmotif in his new series of paintings, it seemed only natural for Hannu Väisänen to also include paintings of rose windows found in cathedral façades. Hannu Väisänen originally sketched the rose windows at Rouen Cathedral, which is famous for its flamboyant Gothic façade, a subject also interpreted by many Impressionists.
Hannu Väisänen (b.1951) is a multi-talented artist who moves fluently between working as a visual artist, writer, stage designer, costume designer, director and illustrator. His work is found in numerous Finnish public collections, and he has created public artworks on commission for clients, including the Finnish National Opera, Kontula Church, and Oulu Cathedral. The multi-award-winning artist is the recipient of the State Prize for Visual Arts, the Finlandia Prize for Literature in 2007, and the State Prize for Literature in 2015. Hannu Väisänen lives and works in the southwest of France.
GALERIE FORSBLOM
Yrjönkatu 22, 00120 Helsinki
