the last wolf

6 November 2019 to 31 October 2020 
Gallery, Särestöniemi-museum

The exhibition focuses on northern roots and heritage that inhibit the art of Reidar Särestöniemi (1925-1981). Born and raised in the village of Kaukonen, Kittilä, the artist drew his inspiration from the surrounding nature, farm life as well as the family’s spiritual legacy.

Reidar Särestöniemi, ”The Last Wolf", oil, 1974.

Kirsi ja Keio Eerikäinen Art Foundation collection. 

Reidar Särestöniemi’s home farm Särestö was run by his mother Alma, a devoted christian Laestadian and father Matti, a convictional socialist. Alma had many stories to share with little Reidar from Finnmark, Northern Norway, where she spend her youth in Vesisaari (Vadsjo). Parent’s contradictional worldviews were furthermore mixed with local beliefs in elves, premonitions and natural deities. Local storytelling tradition, partly influenced by Sami mythologies, can be seen in Reidar’s paintings. The family’s wide circle reached from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to Kittilä, Lapland and formed a steady base for Reidar’s art.

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Beyond Särestö courtyard, nature is omnipresent. Its arctic phenomenons: endless sunlight in the summer and polar nights in the winter reflected a wide emotional scale into the artist’s work. Art exists in relation to its surrounding society, and often a role reserved for the artist is to raise possible issues into wider discussion. Art is also influenced by the artist’s background: childhood, friends and different encounters, defeats or small victories in life. Reidar Särestöniemi’s art is visibly attached to his home area, but also includes symbolic elements. He often gave his audience freedom to interpret from their own standpoint the vivid colours and motifs.

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