Hannu Väisänen @ Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki - "Rose Window" Exhibition

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

www.galerieforsblom.com

Hannu Väisänen @ Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki - Schillmark’s Dream

Hannu Väisänen: Schillmark’s Dream

Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki

14 May – 6 June 2021

For the past three years, Hannu Väisänen has been working on a series of paintings based on the oeuvre of Nils Schillmark (1745–1804). According to the artist, he has subconsciously been working on this series for over 50 years, ever since he saw The Strawberry Girl at the Ateneum Art Museum at the age of eleven, an experience he describes as having made an indelible impression on him. Later, while studying at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, then located in the Ateneum building, Hannu Väisänen often visited the museum and always stopped to admire Schillmark’s paintings.

Nils Schillmark is regarded as Finland’s very first professional painter. Hannu Väisänen became fascinated with him for many reasons. For one, his work offers the earliest fully evolved sample of Finnish art, at a time when Finland was still under Swedish rule. His oeuvre also bears witness to the arrival of international influences in Nordic art in the late 18th century. History, especially art history, is an important source of inspiration for Hannu Väisänen, and this Schillmark-themed exhibition is not the first occasion the artist has created an entire exhibition around art’s debt to history.

Hannu Väisänen’s new show at Galerie Forsblom coincides with his solo exhibition at the Ateneum Art Museum, which features a selection of works also inspired by Schillmark. The content of the Ateneum exhibition is entirely different from that of the Forsblom show, which additionally offers a foretaste of Väisänen’s future work.

Hannu Väisänen is a multi-talent who works across many artistic disciplines: he is a visual artist, writer, set designer, costume designer, director, and illustrator. His work is found in major Finnish public collections, and he has created public works for clients including the Finnish National Opera, Kontula Church, and Oulu Cathedral. He is the winner of the 2007 State Prize for Visual Art and the Finlandia Prize for literature as well as the State Prize for Literature in 2015. He is based in the South of France.

GALERIE FORSBLOM 

Yrjönkatu 22, 00120 Helsinki

www.galerieforsblom.com

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Hannu Väisänen @ Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki - All About Yellow

Hannu Väisänen: All About Yellow
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
Through April 27, 2019

Yellow in its myriad nuances has been an enduring source of fascination for Hannu Väisänen (b. 1951) for many years now. The artist is on a journey of discovery across a vast spectrum of yellows, exploring hues that evoke a variety of different emotions. Yellow is often associated with glowing, radiant light, but certain yellows are also quieter and more introverted. Hannu Väisänen painted this series of works during the darkest months of winter, and in the absence of light, bright shades of yellow have lit his way: his studio is still packed with unfinished paintings in varied yellows that create the illusion of growing warmth, as if heralding the imminent arrival of spring. Although the title is All About Yellow, the artist does not presume to have unearthed everything there is to discover about this rich color – it is simply impossible to single-handedly capture everything that can be said with yellow. This would be an unattainable challenge.

Before starting to paint, Hannu Väisänen produces a large number of sketches in lead pencil. His black-and-white drawings define the form and composition, growing progressively hungrier for colour as they evolve. Drawing has strengthened the artist’s faith in relatively simple forms, allowing color to take center stage. Some of his paintings depict identifiable forms and objects, while others are little more than monochromatic planes. Their abstract nature does not mean they have any less to say, however. For Hannu Väisänen, each work is its own adventure.  

Hannu Väisänen is known as a multi-talent who works smoothly across various artistic fields: he is a visual artist, writer, set designer, costume designer, director and illustrator, and a curator. Hannu Väisänen’s work can be found in prominent public collections, and he has been commissioned to create public works for clients including the Finnish National Opera, Kontula Church and Oulu Cathedral. He is the winner of the 2007 State Prize for visual art and the Finlandia Prize for literature as well as the State prize for literature in 2015. The artist is based in the South of France.

GALERIE FORSBLOM
Lönnrotinkatu 5 / Yrjönkatu 22, 00120 Helsinki
www.galerieforsblom.com