Raimo Utriainen (24 September 1927,

Kuopio Kuopio ( , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Savo. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Kuopio is approximately , while the Kuopio sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mos ...

— 27 April 1994,

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 ...

) was a Finnish

visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...

ist, best known as a modernist sculptor and a moderniser of Finnish sculpture.

Biography

Utriainen initially studied mathematics at the

University of Turku The University of Turku (, shortened ''UTU'') is a multidisciplinary public university with eight faculties located in the city of Turku in southwestern Finland. The university also has campuses in Rauma and Pori and research stations in Kevo ...

, while also attending art classes. He later moved to Helsinki, and switched to studying

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

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 ...

. Later still, he transferred to the Academy of Fine Arts (now part of the

University of the Arts Helsinki The University of the Arts Helsinki (, ), also known as Uniarts Helsinki, is a Finnish arts university that was launched in the beginning of 2013. Apart from a few exceptions, it is the only university in Finland that provides education in the f ...

) to study art. This mathematical and architectural training influenced much of his later works. Utriainen was twice married and divorced, and had three children. In 1993, shortly before his death, Utriainen established an art foundation, which awards annual grants to support young sculptors.

Artistic career

Utriainen began his career as a painter, working in Helsinki and Paris in the 1950s, with mostly

figurative art Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork (particularly paintings and sculptures) that is clearly derived from real object sources and so is, by definition, representational. The term is often in contrast to abstract a ...

works. Gradually his style became more abstract, and by the early 1970s he was working in the modernist style and using 'industrial' materials and methods. Utriainen exhibited internationally as part of collections of modern Finnish art, in Sweden,

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, France, Poland and the United States. His most notable solo exhibitions were in Finland, as well as two invitational tours of Japan in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His works are in permanent collections in art museums in Finland, including 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 ...

art museum of the Finnish National Gallery, as well as internationally. His work has been described as mathematical, kinetic, and plain. He is recognised as a moderniser of Finnish sculpture: for example, his 1972 sculpture ''Esirippu'' ('

Front curtain A front curtain, also known as a (front-of-)house curtain, act curtain, grand drape, main curtain or drape, proscenium curtain, or main rag is the stage curtain or curtains at the very front of a theatrical Stage (theatre), stage, separating it fr ...

'), celebrating the actress

Ida Aalberg Ida Aalberg (4 December 1857 – 17 January 1915) was the most notable and internationally known Finland, Finnish actress of her time. Biography Aalberg was born in , Janakkala. She was a member of the Theatre of Finland from 1874 to 1883 and l ...

, is considered the first fully modernist personal memorial in Finland. Utriainen's main body of work consists of monumental sculptures utilising strict mathematical shapes and themes, often large-scale and designed for public places, and usually made of metal (especially steel and aluminium).

Honours

In 1980, Utriainen was awarded the ' medal of the

Order of the Lion of Finland Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

. In the same year, he was named the

Helsinki Festival The Helsinki Festival (in Finnish language, Finnish: Helsingin juhlaviikot, in Swedish language, Swedish: Helsingfors festspel) is the largest multi-arts festival in Finland. It is Finland's biggest cultural event in terms of visitors. In 2015, arou ...

'Artist of the Year'. Also in 1980, Utriainen was granted the honorary title of

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

References

External links

* of the Raimo Utriainen Art Foundation {{DEFAULTSORT:Utriainen, Raimo 20th-century Finnish sculptors 20th-century Finnish painters Finnish abstract sculptors 1927 births 1994 deaths People from Kuopio Pro Finlandia Medals of the Order of the Lion of Finland