Books
Tyhjyys itämaisessa ajattelussa ja taiteessa. Teos, Helsinki 2008
(Emptiness in Oriental Thought and Art)
In this critically acclaimed illustrated book I cover the oriental thinking about emptiness from its origins in India through Chinese Chan buddhisme to the Japanese Zen. I include the precepts of Chinese and Japanese ink art and how the pivotal concept of emptiness is realised in these works. Two chapters are dedicated to Western thinking, it’s ‘horror of vacuity’ and the difficulties in adopting the concept of zero.
Musta neliö. Abstraktin taiteen salat. Taide, Helsinki, 2004
(The Black Square. The Sectrets of Abstract Art)
In this critically acclaimed illustrated book I trace the origins of image in Western culture passing by the saint images, the icons, and arriving at the “empty icon” of Kasimir Malevitch in Russia in early 20th century. A truly revolutionary work that left a permanent mark. From there the reader is guided through the major currents of thinking in modern art, the most important proponents of which include artists like Piet Mondrian and Vassili Kandiski. Modern art crossed the Atlantic after the Second World War and in New York the artists reinvented abstract art with thoroughly romantic concepts. Ad Reinhardt, the odd one out on the New York art scene, wound up painting black square paintings. He claimed them to be the “synthethis of all Western and Oriental art”, a most serious and puzzling endeavour, raising many pertinent questions about the meaning of a work of art. Some tentative answers are offered in this book.
Abstract art has been buried many times, but its roots are so deep in our culture that it keeps being reborns and reinvented. And all the questions about it remain still open.
Articles, Papers and Lectures
Big City Beat – Painting and Jazz, exposition catalogue Boogie Woogie – Painting and Jazz, Helsinki Hall of Art Helsinki 2007
The Black Square, Zaum and Emptiness, in Kazimir Malevitch, Spirituality and Form, Espoo Museum of Modern Art , Espoo, 2006
Kazimir Malevitch, Astronaut of Abstract Art, Espoo Museum of Modern Art , Espoo, 2006
Reflections sur l’image – théories médiévales d’image, Collège International de Philosophie/C.N.R.S., Paris, 2001
Romanticism, Phenomenology and Modern Art, Colloquium L’esthétique d’aujourd’hui, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2000
Art and The Urban Way of Life, The International Institute of Semiotics, Imatra, 1999
La culture et nous, in Mémoires d’avenir, C. Séranot (ed), Stock, Paris, 1997
The Differentiation and The Indifferentiation of Art, XIIIth International Congress of Aesthetics, Lahti, 1995
L’art et les jeux de langage chez Wittgenstein, Revue d’Esthétique, 3/1994, Paris
Les significations et les jeux en l’art, Colloquium Jaakko Hintikka, Collège International de Philosophie/C.N.R.S./Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, 1994
L’intentionnalité, l’intensionalité et les significations dans l’art, Collège International de Philosophie, Paris, 1993
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, le philosophe du moi sensible (in Finnish), in the Finnish translation of Merleau-Ponty, L’Oeil et l’esprit
A series of articles in the art magazine Taide (Helsinki, Finland) on the philosophy of H.G. Gadamer and A. Schopenhauer on art, on creativity and artistic thinking, on the fourth dimension and the void in art etc.
Lectures and seminars on modern art and philosophy at the University of Paris, the University of Helsinki, the University of Tampere, the Polytechinal University, Espoo, the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, the Art School of Rueil-Malmaison and the Art Museum Sara Hildén, Tampere.
Teaching position at the Parsons School of Design, Paris, on Philosophy and History of Art, 1993-1995.
Translations into Finnish
Albers, Josef, Taito nähdä (Selected Writings), Vapaa taidekoulu, Helsinki 1985,
Arman, Yves, Marcel Duchamp pelaa ja voittaa (Marcel Duchamp Plays and Wins), Suomen taiteilijaseura, Helsinki 1986,
Artaud, Antonin, Korpit ja auringonkukka (Van Gogh, le suicidé de la société), Taide, Helsinki 1988,
Baudelaire, Charles, “Modernin elämän maalari” (Le peintre de la vie moderne), in J.Lintinen (ed.) Modernin ulottuvuuksia, Taide, Helsinki 1989,
Braque, Georges, Aforismeja (Jour et nuit), Suomen taiteilijaseura, Taide, Helsinki 1988,
Dali, Salvador, Neron päiväkirja (Journal d’un génie), WSOY, Helsinki 1988,
Hofmann, Hans, Esseitä (Selected Writings), Vapaa taidekoulu, Helsinki 1983,
Klee, Paul, Modernista taiteesta (Über die moderne Kunst), Suomen taiteilijaseura, Helsinki 1987,
Martin, Agnes, Hiljaisuus taloni lattialla (Selected Writings), Vapaa taidekoulu, Helsinki 1990,
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Silmä ja mieli (L’œil et l’esprit), Taide, Helsinki 1993,
Reinhardt, Ad, Taide taiteena (Art as Art. Selected Writings), Vapaa taidekoulu, Helsinki 1995,
Vallier, Dora, Taiteen sisäkuvia (L’intérieur de l’art), Suomen taiteilijaseura, Helsinki 1984.