Lars-Gunnar Nordström (19 August 1924, in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

– 10 August 2014, in Helsinki) was a Finnish artist, one of the leading pioneers of non-representational art in Finland. His genre of art, concretism, is characterized by an extremely precise, finished, deliberate visual expression. Nordström is particularly known for his geometric paintings, in which angular and curved flat colour fields form clear, strong, dynamic compositions. His oeuvre consists mainly of graphic prints, paintings and sculptures.

Biography

Nordström was born into a family of architects. He initially aimed to study engineering at the

Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; ; , HUT in international usage) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the Helsinki metropolitan area, and it was one of the three universities from which the modern d ...

, but did not pass the entrance exams and ended up studying interior design at the

Central School of Art and Design The Central School of Art and Design was a school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Crafts. ...

between 1946 and 1949. He also attended the Free Art School and made study trips to Paris and New York. He worked as a designer of furniture at various architects' offices until 1960. He debuted with a solo exhibition in 1949 in

. This was the first non-representational art exhibition in Finland, and the audience was confused. His later exhibitions received a mixed reception. Only his large exhibition on 1970 in

Amos Anderson Art Museum Amos Rex is an art museum named after the publisher and arts patron Amos Anderson and located in Lasipalatsi, on Mannerheimintie boulevard in Helsinki, Finland. It opened in 2018 and rapidly reached international popularity, attracting more tha ...

was widely appreciated. After that he was very productive and was honoured with various awards, including nomination to Artist of the Year in 1983. He received the Swedish

Prince Eugen Medal The Prince Eugen Medal () is a medal conferred by the King of Sweden for "outstanding artistic achievement". The medal was established in 1945 by the then King of Sweden, Gustaf V, in connection with the eightieth birthday of his brother Prince ...

in 1983. Nordström's works ''Sculptural'' (1952) and ''Red Composition'' (1954) are displayed at the

Ateneum Ateneum is an art museum in Helsinki, Finland and one of the three museums forming the Finnish National Gallery. It is located in the centre of Helsinki on the south side of Rautatientori square close to Helsinki Central railway station. It has ...

in Helsinki.

References

External links

*
Nordström's work in Kuvataiteilijamatrikkeli.
1924 births 2014 deaths Finnish male painters 20th-century Finnish painters 21st-century Finnish painters 21st-century male artists 20th-century Finnish male artists {{Finland-artist-stub