MAIRE GULLICHSEN AND MODERNISM I

Small-scale exhibition from the collections of the Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation.

MEDIA RELEASE

MAIRE GULLICHSEN AND MODERNISM I

Aiming at dynamic balance – UNTO PUSA

The MAIRE GULLICHSEN AND MODERNISMI I- exhibition presents to us Unto Pusa (1913-1973), one of the most prominent masters and theoreticians of Finnish modernism. For Unto Pusa the idea of the painting was central; it came before the realisation of the work. The subject had to be seen and experienced before starting to paint. The artist’s task was not to reproduce nature but to create something that was as beautiful as nature itself.

”Like many of my contemporaries, I was prevented from going to the Mecca of painters by my years of military service. Only this September and October I had the opportunity to visit Paris ” wrote Unto Pusa about his three-week trip to France in 1948. Already the next year the dream itself came true – a year’s stay and studies at the undisputed centre of modern art. In Paris Pusa first studied in the academy of André Lhote and after that with Fernand Legér. Many Nordic artists had at that time found their way to the teachings of Lhote, who was known as a champion of intellectual art. Pusa had also encountered Legér’s art, for example, during his first trip to Paris one year earlier.

Fernand Legér’s radiant personality, absolute skill and confidence had created a master whose doctrines and thinking Pusa started to explore in his own work. Apart from his actual studies, Pusa was also greatly impressed by the marked role of tradition in French art. Every artist adds his own new contribution to the long chain of art.

Like Maire Gullichsen, Unto Pusa left to Paris with his eyes open and receptive to new impressions. He found kindred spirits in the town and repeated the trip often – Pusa visited Paris a total of about twenty times. He found that his mission was to champion for new art and to relay his impressions and learning to Finland. Pusa was very familiar with both the pioneering theories of Paul Cézanne and Wassily Kandinsky and the ideas of the cubists as well as the Aprés le Cubisme manifesto. He also saw how the avant-garde trends of the 20th century joined in the tradition and long continuum of art. As a teacher at the Free Art School and at the Department of Architecture in the University of Technology he for his part promoted these ideas by publishing his well-known textbooks ”Plastillinen sommittelu” (Plastic composition) and ”Väri-Muoto-Tila” (Colour-Shape-Space). Pusa was also a natural member of the Prisma artist group founded in 1956, which drew influences from France.

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Unto Pusa is represented in the collection of the Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation by five artworks. The paintings of the miniature exhibition give an idea of the development of Pusa’s art from the early 1950’s into the next decade.