artist: Juho Suni (Finnish/Swedish 1921-1992)
medium: oil on canvas laid on panel
dimensions: 33 x 23 cm panel size / 47 x 37 cm frame size (approx)
signed and dated -47
presented in its original frame
AU $465 (approx US $315 / 285 EUROS / 46,500 yen / 240 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Juho Suni was born on 13 July 1921. He was a Finnish/Swedish painter, draftsman, graphic artist, and sculptor.
Of Finnish descent but born in the Soviet Union, Suni was the son of farmer Mikael Suni and Maria Ruotsi. He came to Sweden as a refugee in 1944 and later became a Swedish citizen. In 1953 he married Kerstin Thorén.
Suni studied sculpture at Leningrad’s 1st Pedagogical Art School, continued as a scholarship student at the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts, and later trained under Hugo Zuhr and Bror Hjorth at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. He also undertook study trips to France and Norway.
His Swedish career can be divided into three periods. Until 1950 his work retained an impressionistic character; gradually he adopted a Cézanne-inspired approach, and later drew on influences from East Asian and Finnish painting. Around 1950 he joined the artist group Unga Gävleborgare, where the exchange of ideas led him to experiment with new techniques and materials. In 1955 he even created an abstract short film in colour, shown in Gävle. Around this time he also shifted towards small-format works in brown-toned tempera with intimate motifs, and began producing sculptures in plaster, bronze, and terracotta.
In the early 1960s Suni turned increasingly to graphic art, producing prints in various techniques with support from the newly established Gävle Graphic Artists’ Association.
He exhibited widely: solo shows in Helsinki (1943), Tampere (1944), Falun (1946), Gothenburg (1947), Galerie Æsthetica (1954), and Modern konst i hemmiljö (1960), as well as almost annually in Gävle. He also participated in joint exhibitions with artists including Mona Söderberg, Egon Ericsson-Weinemo, Yngve Dahlbäck, and Hugo Wickman, and was a regular exhibitor with the Gävleborg County Art Association, the Swedish General Art Association’s Sverigesalonger at Liljevalchs, and the Nationalmuseum’s Unga tecknare. His first group appearance had been in Leningrad in 1940.
Among his public works are two wrought iron gates and a cast iron relief for Lillhagsskolan in Gävle, the sculpture Dikt in Sandviken, and several sculptural groups in Gävle.
Suni is represented in the collections of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Gävle Museum, Hälsingland Museum, Hudiksvall Museum, Sandviken Municipality, and Tampere Municipality.
He passed away in 1992.