Tapani Raittila: Paintings, drawings, watercolours and bronze reliefs, 1939-2004. Exhibition at Taidehalli, Helsinki, 2 Feb - 30 March, 2008. (The touring exhibition has already been seen in Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, The Rovaniemi Art Museum, and The Joensuu Art Museum). Viewed on 3 Feb 2008. Following the catalogue text: born in 1921, Tapani Raittila fought for five years in WWII, completed his studies and embarked on an exceptionally long and varied career as an artist. He is one of the most typical, yet also most versatile, representatives of the Finnish post-war Modernism. The veteran artist has continued to find new aspects to his refined idiom of form and colour up until the present. - Seen now, Tapani Raittila's works do not seem Modernistic. They are profoundly personal works of representational art. They convey a feeling of reflection and concentration. The exhibition has been put together with insight by the Sara Hildén Art Museum (Riitta Valorinta, Päivi Loimaala). A key is the long series of 11 self-portraits, from 1939 until 1996. We see the face of a thinker. In the room of official portraits from Kekkonen till Koivisto we see something of the same expression in every visage. There are many portraits in the exhibition and not a single smile. One starts to think about his Laestadian childhood (of Lutheran Fundamentalism) and his long war service. Tapani Raittila is a popular teacher, a member of a talented artist family, and an interviewee worth listening in the tv documentary Itse asiassa kuultuna: Tapani Raittila (YLE 2004, 52 min) planned by Paula Holmila and directed by Ritva Kuusisto.
http://www.tampere.fi/english/sarahilden/exhibition/previous/raittilaengl.html
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