Still Life (Space)

These three still lifes by Anna Retulainen (b. 1969, Orimattila) are hung in the Porolahti Comprehensive School. While fruit and vegetables are standard motifs in traditional still life painting, what’s more important than figurative content in Retulainen’s works are the process of painting and the formation of the works. Traces of the artist’s physical action, hand gestures and brush strokes are all visible in these paintings. Another visible feature is how thin and thick layers of paint impart a sense of variation to the surface, and how tonal gradations build an illusion of light and shadow as well as forms.

The wall behind two of the works is painted to lend the impression that the seemingly living surface of the painting seems to continue along the wall.

The work was produced under the Percent for Art programme, and it belongs to the collection of the City of Helsinki, managed by HAM Helsinki Art Museum.