Ahti Lavonen

“Art is an informative mission”
Informalism took shape in the 1950s as a parallel trend to abstract expressionism, with the term becoming more widely known through the 1958 Venice Biennale. Like concrete art, this tendency rejected representation, but also distinctly eschewed geometrical forms. An effort is made to express spontaneity and spiritual dimensions through colour or embossed surface structures that are sometimes emphasized by adding sand to the paint or applying a collage technique. A close relationship between the work and the artist, the creative process and a personal character that concrete art expressly seeks to abandon also served as a dimension opposed to concretism.
The trend was received with relative kindness in Finland. Ahti Lavonen immediately became its principal representative in the early 1960s, even while rejecting the informalist label as part of his opposition to the entire notion of schools of work in the middle of that decade. Lavonen’s work divides into colour episodes. The silver episode that followed the white episode may be regarded as the artist’s most distinctive stage, and as an artistic climax of sorts. Besides the universal silver, these works sometimes display pure and clear colour details in shimmering red, blue or yellow. Like other informalists, Lavonen also shunned form and movement to focus on expressing peace, spirituality and harmony guided by the material.
While informalism gave way fairly rapidly to other trends in Finland, its profound influences have continued into the art of our times.

This item is collected at Iso Roobertinkatu 12 after the auction has ended.