RISTO SUOMIpaintings 1.4.2017 – 23.4.2017
Purple Horse, 2017acrylic on canvas
150 x 190 cm
Emotion unravels metaphors
A little boy is
standing on top of a hill and watching a burning city. He is holding a frog and
maybe wondering whether he should push the frog over the edge of the hill. In
ancient South American mythologies, the frog was the symbol of fertility. And
the psychoanalytical interpretation of a house is the self, ego. Egos are burning.
If we could listen to the new paintings
by Risto Suomi (b. 1951), we would hear Hamlet´s fast steps and his breathless
but humoresque frenzy. The artist follows his own path, and now Hamlet´s steps
are so brisk that it makes us laugh. It´s a farce, not a tragedy. In the
background of the same painting, a solitary giraffe on the savanna symbolises
true longing.
The cosmic space, starry sky or distant
sea horizon with their shades of blue, often ultramarine, create a feeling of
infinity and romance.
We meet the Hare, the Horse, the Bear
and the Dog, the artist´s central subjects and metaphors.
The horse is the human´s greatest
conquest, they say. But now it´s playing the leading role, as the painting Purppurahevonen (Purple Horse) attracts
our attention.
The impulse to make the picture is
created through dreams and memories. The artist is forced to sublimate in order
to open us a gate into the sensation.
A child´s logic is quite harsh in its
virginity. And that is why we cannot ignore these paintings.
Kuutti Lavonen
