Ida Helmi Tuulikki Pietilä (18 February 1917 – 23 February 2009) was an American-born Finnish graphic artist and professor. Pietilä is considered one of Finland's most influential graphic artists, with her work being shown in multiple art exhibitions. She worked as a teacher at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki The Academy of Fine Arts ( fi, Kuvataideakatemia; sv, Bildkonstakademin) in Helsinki, Finland is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and provides the highest university-level theoretical and practical training in the country in fine arts ...

, and later trained graphic artists and wrote multiple books about graphic arts.

Personal life

Pietilä was born in Seattle, Washington, United States, before moving with her parents to Finland as a child. Pietilä had a brother, Reima Pietilä, who was a noted architect. Pietilä died in 2009 in Helsinki, at the age of 92. She bequeathed more than 1400 pieces of art to

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 t ...

Career

Pietilä started her studies at Turku Drawing School (now the TUAS Arts Academy at

Turku University of Applied Sciences Turku University of Applied Sciences (abbr. ''TUAS'', Finnish ''Turun ammattikorkeakoulu'') is a multidisciplinary higher education institution, located in the city of Turku and Salo ithe Southwest Finland The institute began operations as a tem ...

), where she attended between 1933 and 1936. She went on to study at the drawing school of the Finnish Art Association between 1936 and 1940; the

University College of Arts, Crafts and Design Konstfack, or University of Arts, Crafts and Design, is a university college for higher education in the area of art, crafts and design in Stockholm, Sweden. History Konstfack has had several different names since it was founded in 1844 by the ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

between 1945 and 1949; and the Fernand Léger Art Academy in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

between 1949 and 1953. During her studies she met the artist

Tove Jansson Tove Marika Jansson (; 9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Swedish-speaking population of Finland, Swedish-speaking Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. Brought up by artistic parents, Jansson studied art from ...

, who later became her life partner. Pietilä's work covered many mediums, including

woodcuts Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

and linographs, and utilised multiple styles, including

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

and

cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

. The first exhibition of Pietilä's work was held in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

in 1935 when she was a student. Her first private exhibition was in 1951. From 1967, she participated in the Purnu group's summer exhibitions, and a retrospective exhibition of her work there was held in 1986. Pietilä garnered acclaim for her work, and was awarded the

Order of the Lion of Finland The Order of the Lion of Finland ( fi, Suomen Leijonan ritarikunta; sv, Finlands Lejons orden) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty and the Order of the White Rose of Finland. The President o ...

in 1963; she became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, where she had previously been a student, in 1982.

Relationship with Tove Jansson

Pietilä became reacquainted with Jansson in 1955; they went on to become romantic partners until Jansson's death in 2001. Pietilä and Jansson collaborated on many projects, including many related to Jansson's characters, the

Moomins The Moomins ( sv, Mumintroll) are the central characters in a series of novels, short stories, and a comic strip by Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland. They are a family of white ...

; 43 three-dimensional pieces created by Pietilä are now exhibited at the Moomin Museum in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

. Pietilä is believed to the inspiration for the character Tooticky in the Moomin books. Pietilä and Jansson spent many summers on Klovharu island in Pellinki; these travels were documented by Pietilä in several hours of film. Several documentaries have been made from this footage, including ''Haru, yksinäinen saari'' (''Haru, the lonely island''; 1998) and ''Tove ja Tooti Euroopassa'' (''Tove and Tooti in Europe'', 2004). Pietilä was Jansson's companion at the Presidential Palace's Independence Day reception in 1992; they have retrospectively been described as being the first female same-sex couple to attend the event as guests.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pietila, Tuulikki 1917 births 2009 deaths Finnish graphic designers Lesbian artists LGBT artists from Finland Moomins Tove Jansson Pro Finlandia Medals of the Order of the Lion of Finland Academic personnel of the University of the Arts Helsinki Konstfack alumni American people of Finnish descent 20th-century Finnish women artists Women graphic designers American emigrants to Finland