Reidar Särestöniemi (14 May 1925,

Kittilä Kittilä (, , ) is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland and a popular holiday resort. It is located in northern Finland north of the Arctic Circle within the Lapland (Finland), Lapland Regions of Finland, region. The municipality ...

– 27 May 1981, Kittilä) was a Finnish painter from Finnish Lapland. He is considered one of the greatest Finland-Lappish artists in the entire history of Finland. Särestöniemi was born as the youngest child of Alma and Matti Kaukonen at the Särestöniemi farm near the Ounasjoki river in

. The family later renamed itself after the farm. Reidar Särestöniemi studied art in

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from 1947 to 1951. After this he studied for three years in the famous Repin Institute. Särestöniemi has had many exhibitions all over the world, with the furthest being in

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in 1980. The

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awarded Särestöniemi the title of Professor of Arts in 1975. The Särestöniemi museum was founded after the artist's death in 1985. The museum exhibits the painter's work in their original surroundings. In 2015, in observation of Särestöniemi's 90th birthday and in honor of the museum's 30th anniversary, sculptor

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unveiled a statue of Särestöniemi at the museum.Ylitalo, A.
"Särestöön pystytettiin pronssipatsas Reidarista"
'' Lapin Kansa'', Sep. 11, 2015. The museum complex includes the estate of the Särestöniemi family, which represents the old “peräpohjalainen” building tradition, Old Särestö (1873) and the impressive log buildings Galleria (1972) and Ateljee-koti (1978) built by Reidar Särestöniemi and designed by the architect couple Reima and Raili Pietilä.

References

Sources

Reidar Särestöniemi at www.kittila.fi

The Särestöniemi Museum
1925 births 1981 deaths People from Kittilä 20th-century Finnish painters {{Finland-painter-stub