Lars-Gunnar Nordström

Courageousness, individuality and loyalty towards his own choices were trademarks of Nordström’s artistic production from the beginning. He followed closely the lively artistic life in the Nordic countries, especially the creative currents in Sweden, and made several fieldtrips to follow current events.
The early, cubist-inspired works soon changed into the dynamic, geometrical shapes of his later oeuvre, and his exhibition in 1949 was, at the same time, the first exhibition of abstract art in Finland. His works for the 1955 Artek exhibition were even more monumental, and the vast areas of colour on the flat surfaces strive towards a sense of transcendence.
Nordström found his own style very quickly, and the abstract visual language got strong reactions in the artworld. The sharpest critique judged the constructivist works to be unemotional, cold and decorative, even though the artists himself saw his work as based very strongly in intuition, without mathematical aid. Colours play an important part in Nordström’s works, together with a strong sense of rhythm, and his love for jazz music merges naturally with the visual expression. Despite the Swedish public being more accepting of Nordström’s abstract works, the artists gained strong appreciation even in Finland from the 1970s onwards.

Photo: Mauno Mannelin 1965.