We’re sitting in a room surrounded by Moomins
but, Sointu, I think that you could open up, a little bit, Tove as an artist
beyond the Moomins or even before the Moomins.
Yeah because that’s so important. It’s such a big part of the exhibition
and really our aim to show that she was so much more
We have two galleries with her paintings beginning from the 30s.
I just love her surrealist, mystical paintings
and paintings when she was a young art student which are totally enchanting.
I think, being a painter, it was so important for her,
so it is also really crucial for this exhibition
where we are trying to show the whole scope of her fantastic oeuvre,
that she is represented well as a painter.
Yeah if you think that she started when she was 15
and very very young and then, of course, lived to 86.
She tried so many different types of art
and she was good at so many different things.
And you saw it so close.
Yes well I perhaps didn’t actually watch her doing art
but of course because I lived so close to her I kind of knew her attitude to life,
both consciously and subconsciously and I think you can see it
in the works displayed in this exhibition.
And the story of her whole painter career, it is so interesting
because, if you look at her paintings, she has so many different styles,
beginning from the mysterious beginning and going to more realistic
and all the time there is Matisse as the great idol
who is guiding her love for colours and she’s striving for perfection.
She was incredibly productive which is great for us
because there are so many works to display now
but is there any particular painting you would pick out?
I think absolutely the family which is also a self-portrait and it’s your family.
Yeah well of course it’s important to us
because it’s the only one she painted of the whole family
and a very interesting painting because it’s full of static dynamic
between the different family members and then the story behind it
of course is, I think, tragic and, at the same time, very informative
about her and I think, even without knowing that,
you can see her in the middle of the painting dressed in black,
being quite defiant and taking on the world
so it’s a very interesting painting.
Her whole ethos is somehow in the picture and how it relates
in the same room, the same time
when she was doing the absolutely bold illustrations for Garm.
It’s hard to understand how she could be so bold
and sign these images with her own name
in a situation where nobody could know how the world is going to be
and how the war is going to end.
It’s one part of her whole production that I appreciate so highly
and it’s wonderful that they are part of the show here too.
I think now that people have an opportunity to see these
they will really see a very new side to Tove.
Yes and it reflects on actually everything
because what Tuula Karjalainen always says that it’s totally impossible
to separate her life and her work because it’s all the same.