Väinö Ilmari Kunnas (12 April 1896

Vyborg Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus n ...

- 10 February 1929,

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

) was a Finnish

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

painter. During his brief career, he went from Expressionism to experiment with more abstract modern styles. His major works consist of portraits of cultural personalities and depictions of the urban environment.

Life

His parents were the painters Mikko Kunnas (originally Keränen) and Helena Varonen. Due to his mother's early death, his education was interrupted. After the family moved to

Sortavala Sortavala (russian: Сортавала; Finnish and krl, Sortavala; sv, Sordavala); till 1918 Serdobol (russian: Сердоболь) is a town in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, located at the northern tip of Lake Ladoga near the Finnish bor ...

, he was able to attend an arts and crafts school, graduating in 1912.Brief biography
by Julia Donner @ Sininen Laulu When they returned home, he studied drawing at the Vyborg art school until 1917.
@ Kuvataiteilijamatrikkeli He also studied music with the composer

Toivo Kuula Toivo Timoteus Kuula (7 July 1883 – 18 May 1918) was a Finnish composer and conductor of the late-Romantic and early-modern periods, who emerged in the wake of Jean Sibelius, under whom he studied privately from 1906 to 1908. The core of Ku ...

. In the 1918

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

, Kunnas fought for the

Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...

. After the Battle of Vyborg, he was captured by the Whites spending two weeks in a prison camp. Kunnas moved to Helsinki in 1920, where he studied at the Finnish Art Society drawing school from 1920-1921. After graduating, his economic situation was rather precarious and he had to take full-time work as an assistant to the architect

Johan Sigfrid Sirén Johan Sigfrid Sirén (27 May 1889 – 5 March 1961) was a Finland, Finnish architect. He is best known for Parliament House, Helsinki, Eduskuntatalo, which is where the Parliament of Finland meets. Career Sirén was born in 1889 in Ylihärm� ...

. He began to exhibit during these years, and also became a member of the art association "Nuoret" (Youth) as well as Tulenkantajat, a literary-cultural society. In 1924, he married the painter , and that year their daughter, Kirsi Kunnas, was born. She became a well-known poet and children's book author. Väinö Kunnas died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

in 1929.

Works

* ''Maalaus Värtsilästä'' (View of Värtsilä), 1922 * ''Portrait of

Uuno Kailas Uuno Kailas, born Frans Uno Salonen (29 March 1901 – 22 March 1933) was a Finnish poet, writer, and translator. Together with Kaarlo Sarkia, Kailas was the most prominent Finnish poet of the 1930s. Life Kailas was born in Heinola. After h ...

'', 1924 * ''Portrait of Katri Vala'', 1925 * ''Kaupunkikuva'' (Cityscape), 1926 * ''Omakuva'' (Self-portrait), 1926 * ''Tanssit-sarja'' (Dance Series), 1927–1928 * ''Portrait of Olavi Paavolainen'', 1928 * ''Kirsin satunurkka'' (Kirsi's Fairy Tale Nook), 1928. * ''Harmaa tanssi'' ( The Grey Dance), 1928

References

External links

ArtNet: More works by Kunnas.

Väinö Kunnas
@ the

Finnish National Gallery Finnish National Gallery ( fi, Suomen Kansallisgalleria, sv, Finlands Nationalgalleri) is the largest art museum institution of Finland. It consists of the Ateneum, an art museum; Kiasma, a contemporary art museum; and the Sinebrychoff Art Muse ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kunnas, Vaino 1896 births 1929 deaths Artists from Vyborg People from Viipuri Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Finnish Expressionist painters 20th-century Finnish painters People of the Finnish Civil War (Red side) Deaths from pneumonia in Finland