The year 2025 marks the centennial of the birth of artist and Professor Reidar Särestöniemi. Särestöniemi was one of the most successful artists of his time, and his saturated colourful works still move people today. Reidar set a goal for his art: “I want to express all as colour.” His paintings prove that he reached his goal in the most unique way.
Reidar Särestöniemi (1925–1981) lived almost his entire life in the courtyard of his childhood home in the village of Kaukonen in Kittilä, where he also later built himself atelier and gallery. For the artist, his homestead in Särestö was heaven on earth, a source of inspiration for his art. That was where his famous radiant colourful paintings and renditions of arctic nature were born. It is a testament to Särestöniemi’s international success that he had exhibitions around the world from Narvik to Tokio, and he traveled the world more than most of his contemporaries. Särestöniemi was a success already during his lifetime and was awarded the title of Professor in 1974. His home Särestö became a popular place, and people would brave travelling through the wilderness to get to meet the prince of colour.
Särestöniemi developed his own artistic technique and style during the 1960s. He combined tempera and oil painting, sprinkled pigment on wet surfaces thus cracking the surface, scraped the surface with a palette knife revealing underlying layers and would tilt his works on the floor while giving his paintings colour baths. His best-known works were his large colourful paintings which depicted the arctic nature in an almost dreamlike fashion. His paintings map out the change in the seasons from the quickly awaking spring to the short summer, and to the darkness of November and the greys and whites of the cold winter. Colour is the central element and means of expression for the artist. He found the starting point for his colours in nature: “I look for colours on the surfaces of rocks and boulders, I peer at root balls submerged in swamps and follow the activities of forest creatures.”
Särestöniemi identified with nature and personified natural phenomena. In his works bears and seals embrace each other, a ram plays the flute, and a grouse is dazzled by the spectacle of spring. His paintings tell stories of love and loss, yearning and loneliness, the joys and sorrows of life. “Imake these images and hope that they give people something better. In them, I tell stories, like all artists do, of this world that we live in.” Särestöniemi was inspired by the nature around him as well as his own life. According to his own words, he examined nature, but in doing so he simultaneously peered deep into himself.
The exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of Särestöniemi’s career from his early works to his large-scale impressive oil paintings. It includes 90 art works made with different techniques as well as objects, archival material, photographs and videos. The works on display are both from museum and private collections. The exhibition highlights well-known favourites, but also works that have not been seen before to enrich the image of the talented artist.
A publication called I want to express all as colour will come out alongside the exhibition showcasing Reidar Särestöniemi’s works and his world. The exhibition and publication have been made in collaboration with Särestöniemi Museum.
