Yhteistyö / Co-operation

Gunnar Finne has designed a great number of the public works in Helsinki. His works are stylized and marked by a lyric Classicism. Finne’s principal work is “Fact and Fable”, the memorial to Z.Topelius and the cause of the most heated cultural dispute of the 1930s.

Finne’s “Co-operation” is placed in front of a red-brick commercial building designed by Väinö Vähäkallio. It consists of a stone slab with reliefs cut on its sides. On top of the relief there is a stone globe, surrounded by a ribbon with the text “co-operation”. The relief in front of the stone depicts a woman with a child, while those on the sides depict a carpenter, smith and a female farm worker. The smith holds the hand of a boy behind whom looms the figure of a foreman. Gunnar Finne was inspired by the relief art of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt which subjects expressiveness to form. There is a movement progressing from left to right in the reliefs cut on the sculpture’s sides. Through the child the superior is also connected to this movement, despite his unusual placement. Gunnar Finne’s work represent a child’s ability to unite social classes and disregard prejudice.

The work doesn’t belong to the collections of the Helsinki Art Museum.