ILMARI AALTO

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Sunday Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

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Ilmari Aalto (1891-1934) was a painter of Finland. He studied art at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (1907-1908) and at the Finnish Art Society drawing school (1908-1910). He was a member of the Expressionist November Group.

Aalto was aware of art trends across Europe and was affected by it. Aalto began his carrier with expressionism, after an exhibition in 1914 showed interest in Cubism and from 1928 turned to realism. After 1920, Aalto began to use oil colours like oil colours with large patches and brush strokes. The range of colours now was large. He used unmixed colours that offered sharper contours and contrast.

Aalto painted still lives, landscapes and portraits. Most of the landscapes are from Töölö and Suursaari area. He was a self-critical person who destroyed many of his works.

Expressionism was a movement that began as a reaction to Impressionism, from early part of 1900s. It involved art, music, theatre, literature and architecture. This was an expression of personal emotions, rather than the physical reality. Everyone used own sets of ‘tools’ to express the subjective feelings. For art, these were peculiar set of colours, brush strokes, illumination and even subject content.

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