On My Paintings and Collage Sculptures

Leonurdo,Vol. 4, pp. 63-65. Pergamon Press 1971. Printed in Great Britain ON MY PAINTINGS AND COLLAGE SCULPTURES* Ahti Lavonen** Fig. 1. ‘CollageSculptures’, two modules, polymethyl methacrylate covered aluminium sheet, 100 x 100x 25 cm, 1968. In the 1950’s, I made paintings in various strong colours along the lines of impressionistic abstractions and also of colour fantasies. None of these satisfied me, so I started to reduce the range of colours until I ended up with the ascetic combination of black and white. Black became for me in the early 1960’s of prime importance. To me, black did not mean sorrow, misery, a withdrawal from the world-rather it symbolized life. I felt that it had the quality of quietness, of giving a sense of large time span. Since I did not feel that black alone was enough in a painting, I added mainly shades of rust brown and dark red to small areas along the borders of the black. People reacted strongly to thesepaintings. Then I began to apply the collage technique to a *This note was prepared with the help of of the artistteacher Annikki Luukela living at 5 as. 29 Puistokaari, 2O-Helsinki,Finland.(Received7July 1970.) **Born 21 March 1928 at Kaskinen, Finland, died on 26 February 1970 at Helsinki. He played a leading role in the renewalof Finnishart,beginninginthelate1950’s. series of black paintings. One of these is made up only of gradations of black. They range from coal black to clear, gleaming shades to what might be called a ‘white’black, for it reflects white light. The tension in the work arises from the varieties of black, their relations to the black background and to the different black textures of materials glued to the surface. I was at this time listening to a lot of symphonic music, especially to works by Sibelius.Although he was in the classical tradition, I liked it. What especially impressed me was his use of passages of silence.I tried to adapt the world of his music to my paintings; not directly, of course, but to express the feelingsthe musicaroused in me. My black paintings of this period have, I believe, a markedly ‘musical’ quality and reinforced my convictionthat there is an affinity not only between painting and music but betweenallthe arts. The illusion of space that appeared in my black paintings differedfrom the illusion of it in my white paintings that followed. Their starting point was 5 63 64 Ahti Lationen Fig. 2. ‘White Sculpture’, enameled, welded 4 mm thick cold-rolled steel sheet, 100 x 100 x l00crn, 1966-1967. emptiness. I imagined that a canvas was an empty chessboard and that I played a game by painting shapes on it. I was very surprised by the possibilities that were offered for making a composition in this way. Emptiness became a new adventure and I wanted to place in it something of significance. As a child of the north, 1 associated the white emptiness of a canvas with our snow-covered countryside. My thoughts were so wrapped up in this natural aspect that it was difficult for me to direct them toward the kind of abstractions I was searchingfor. At first, I crammed the white surface with miniature forms drawn from nature, which helped me to grasp the world of structure, previously not evident to me. Walking out of doors I noticed that I was looking at what was near my feet. Distant views vanished and my idea of the world became highly subjective. I was seeing things as a small bird would when hopping around on the ground. Gradually I reached a kind of synthesis between dimensions and material characteristics. I searched also for materials to use besides oil paint, such as glues and glues mixed with sand but the results were heavy and oppressive. I knew the kind of effect 1 wanted and continued my search. One day I found a porous stone on the sea shore. From it I made a powder which when mixed with plastic paint produced the clear, light surface I desired. No matter how logically an artist plans one of his works, he realizes that chance plays an...