Sunday, June 28, 2009
Vyborg by Night, 1990
Actually, I was escaping my 60th anniversary that was approaching. I returned to the Vyborg of my childhood. I was not disturbed by the bad shape of the town or its inhabitants. I wandered along the streets day and night. I had heard warnings of how dangerous the streets were at night. I did not mind the danger. Drunken soldiers wobbled around by me. No-one paid any attention to me with my camera. It even happened to be the New Year's night.
Identifiers: Vyborg
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Alpo Jaakola, 1976
The name of the TV film was “Piina” [The Pain]. This is what I wrote about it on my web page: I had been making TV films for ten years, a total of 25 documentaries. Most of them were connected with art in one way or another, or were at least so-called feature films. It signified putting your heart in the theme. You knew the production crew, all of them were motivated and skilled: producer Eero Härkönen, cameraman Jorma Karhunen, sound recorder Pentti Enäkoski, stage manager Ensio Suominen, editor Matti Oksala, script girl Riitta Virtasalmi and music editor Hector. When I called Alpo Jaakola, he said we did not need to introduce ourselves. We were welcome to make a film. I thought we could not fail with this crew. (The Pain was awarded the Jussi Statute). Photograph: Jorma Karhunen.
Identifiers: Alpo Jaakola
Friday, June 26, 2009
Aatto Hukkanen, 1974
He called himself Hukkanen the Rebel or a girl trader. He really was in revolt against officials ideas of art and sold girls in the form of paintings, as he painted them. He was a carpenter and skipper, even a caretaker. He devoted himself to art and left his previous life like Gauguin whom he admired. He learnt to draw in the Oulu Workers' Institute, studied painting under the guidance of Paavo Leinonen and graphics with Olli Seppänen. I made a film of Aatto called “The Girl Trader” (Tyttökauppias) in 1974. In this photo Aatto is seen with her model. (Photo: Jorma Karhunen)
Identifiers: Aatto Hukkanen
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Picasso in Stockholm, 1988
At the end of my film career I had the opportunity to make documentaries of the exhibitions of some top names in the world of art. Picasso in Stockholm, Giorgio Morandi and Alberto Giacometti in the Hildén Art Museum in Tampere, Edvard Much in Oslo and Helene Schjerfbeck in the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki- could there have been a better end to such a career? Heaven only knows why I was allowed, together with a Swedish crew, to film a 30-minute document in full peace for three days in the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. Colleagues from different countries said they were only given permission for news flashes of a couple of minutes.
Identifiers: Picasso
At Vilho Lampi's Grave
Inspired by Vilho Lampi, Paavo Rintala had published the novel entitled “God is beauty” (Jumala on kauneus) in 1959. We had been searching Vilho Lampi's tracks together in Liminka, a place that I was very familiar with ever since the Winter War. Lampi, with his works and fate, was and still is something of an art guru in all his isolation in Ostrobothnia. I knew contemporaries of Lampi, especially his younger brother Arvo Lampi. I was given first-hand information and old photos which I “restored”. I had to do it all without any grants or other support. Airi was, of course, a good patroness to me. Karisto published in 1967 my modest biographical work “Vilho Lampi – lakeuden maalari” [The Painter of the Plains]. It was about then that I visited his grave at Rantakylä, Liminka. (Photo: Airi Aalto).
Identifiers: Vilho Lampi
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Stone Churches of Western Uusimaa, 1998
I spent a two-week vacation in western Uusimaa around midsummer in 1998. I drove up and down, looking for medieval stone churches. Inkoo, Pohja, Karjaa, Lohja, Siuntio, Tenhola and Perniö in Varsinais-Suomi offered a fine architectural experience. Beauty lived in these buildings and their surroundings. I cannot remember having seen anything like it anywhere else. I was drawing and shooting photos “like a madman”.
Identifiers: Stone churches
Sunday, June 7, 2009
A Certain In Memoriam, 1967
I got to know Olga Panusuo at Panuma, Pudasjärvi in the early 1960's. The former dairymaid had become a clairvoyant and “self-artist” after retirement. Using the gnarls she found in nature and whatever else, she built a curious zoo, which gradually attracted visitors from quite a distance. By that time I had already made a few TV documentaries, and as Panuma as such was a place well worth filming and as Olga Panusuo had drowned in her lake in the previous winter, I suggested to TV2 that a film should be made on this topic.
The film was entitled “A Certain In Memoriam” (Eräs in memoriam) and it attracted so much attention that it was granted a church award and I was personally given a state film award.
Identifiers: self-art, folk art
Thursday, June 4, 2009
God's Eye, 1969
In 1969 Andrè Schütz, a Swiss-born architect, ordered quite a large wall relief from me to the Alava Church that was being designed. It would be placed on the outer wall, between the main doors. The material was concrete, which suited me just fine. After all, I had produced a large concrete sculpture to Sweden the previous year. I made a model by moulding. In this picture I am making a detail of the God's eye.
Identifiers: Alava Church
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