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POP AND POLITICS
The World in turbulence
• 1955 First TV broadcasting in Finland
• 1956 The Hungarian Revolution
• 1957 First Sputnik in space
• 1961 The Berlin Wall. Juri Gagarin, the first man in space
• 1962 United States embargo against Cuba. Exhibition “4 Americans” in Moderna Museet
(Museum of Modern Art) Stockholm
• 1965 Vietnam War (1965-1973)
• Student activism and riots in Paris in 1968, West Germany in the late 1960s-early 1970s, USA
1965 & 1967
• 1963 Assassination of John F. Kennedy, USA
• 1964 Exhibition “American pop-art” in Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art) Stockholm.
Art students translated the catalogue was translated in Finnish.
• 1967 Che Guevara is shot in Bolivia. Migration to Sweden, 300000 Finns move to Sweden
during 1967-1973 in search for better job opportunities
• 1966 Leftist parties gain majority in parliamentary election in Finland
• 1968 Student riots in Paris. Attempted murder of student activist Rudi Dutschke in West
Germany. The Spring of Prague, troops of the Sovjet Union, Bulgaria, the GDR, Hungary and
Poland invade Czechoslovakia. Assassination of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy
• 1970s Political terrorism in Europe, RAF, the Baader-Meinhof
• 1972 The napalm bombings in Vietnam, pictures are spreading in the media
• 1973 President of Chile, Salvador Allende is murdered
• 1977 Steve Biko dies in South Africa
• 1980 Assassination of John Lennon in New York. Falkland war.
What was going on in 1960s Finland ?
 After the World War II reconstruction of Finland began in the middle of a political and military
tension the so-called ”Cold war” betwen the Western and Eastern Bloc
 Memories of the war did not fade easily: nuclear bomb, concentration camps and horrors of
the war were still haunting in people’s minds
 Finland was rapidly changing from a rural way of life into urban and industrialized country.
Migration from the countryside into the cities began.
 The development of technology and media: first TV-broadcast in 1958 made world politics a
part of everyday life
 Vietnam war launched demands of world peace
 News about starvation in the “third world” raised questions about global injustice
”Art is not only images and objects that live their life, regardless of everything else.
Art is one of the institutions in society, attached to its environment - including the political.”
(Markku Valkonen 1970)
Art oriented to the Aesthetic
• Geometric abstraction, concretism
• Inner world, informalism
• Artistic autonomy
• Individuality of the artist
Participatory Art
• Pop Art registered the surrounding reality without any comments or statements
• Neo-Realism comments, shapes opinions, participates
• Art as the conscience of society
•
Disposing the "art"
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH ?
Harro Koskinen (b. 1945)
* The Pig Family, 1969, installation, fiberglass, wood, textile, alkyd paint coating, Turku Art Museum
* The Pig Messiah, 1969, acrylic paint, wood, chipboard, 380x190 cm
* Coat of Arms with a Pig, 1969, alkyd paint on chipboard, height 92 cm
 The Pig Family resulted in charges for blasphemy
 Coat of Arms with a Pig resulted in charges for discrediting the coat of arms of Finland
CARTOON AND COMIC STRIP AS A FORM OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
Leo Lindsten (1943-1988)
* Maybe he thinks I’m old-fashioned, 1968, 93x125
Matti Helenius (b. 1951) & Leo Niemi (b. 1945)
* The Phantom, oil on chipboard, 152x153, depth 42 cm
Pekka Nevalainen (b. 1951)
* Man’s Names, 1973, serigraph, 45x33
Kalervo Palsa (1947-1987)
Paul Osipow (s. 1939)
* Crunch, 1965-1966, acrylic on canvas, 110x163
Jarmo Mäkilä (s. 1952)
* Sunken Atlantis, 1982, acrylic on canvas, 250x425
* ”Ghost Town”, 1996-1998
Rosa Liksom (b. 1958)
Examples of popular contemporary comic strips
Jussi ”Juba” Tuomola (b. 1965) Viivi & Wagner
Kaisa Leka (b. 1978)
Pertti Jarla (b. 1971) Fingerpori
ART AND POPULAR CULTURE
Markus Heikkerö (b. 1952)
* Marlene on the Red Square, 1980-1989, spray paint on paper, 63x97
Kaj Stenwall (b. 1951)
Esko Tirronen (1934-2011)
* Morning I, 1975, oil and tempera on canvas, 175x150
• Photorealism
• Consumer Society. Advertising. Woman shown as an object and commodity
Mauri Favén (1920-2006)
* Pansy, 1971, oil on canvas, 125x104
ART AS A SOCIAL AGONIST
Kimmo Pyykkö (b. 1940)
* Idol, 1974, metal, aluminium, height 130 cm
Raimo Reinikainen (b. 1939)
* Sketch for the Flag of the USA, 1966, collage, oil and newspaper clip, 36x65

Ironic collage
Kimmo Kaivanto (1932-2012)
* Hand, 1969, serigraph
* When the Sea Dies, 1967, serigraph, 64x43
Rauni Liukko (b. 1940)
* Shared Seatbelt, 1972, fiberglass, styrofoam, height 75-100 cm
ON BEHALF OF THE UNDERPRIVILEGED
Rauni Liukko (b. 1940)
Niilo Hyttinen (1940-2010)
* Portrait from the Underdeveloped Area Series, 1970, oil on canvas, 160x130 cm
* Celebration of the Human Being II, 1973, watercolour, 27x14 cm
 Humanistic satire about the welfare society
ART AND POLITICS
Inari Krohn (b. 1945)
* Songs to the Flag, 1971, oil on canvas, 200x150 cm
Influenced by
• Latin America
• Asia
• Mural painting
• Socialistic Realism in the Sovjet Union
• Social realism in Cuba (f.ex. Diego Rivera)
Kari Jylhä (1939-2013)
* From a Family Album, 1970, mixed media, 130x97 cm
• ”Pop musicians and those kind of people make art for the people and live like an elite. The
artist lives like the people, but makes art for the elite. The elite are those for whom art is a
question of courtship (socializing)” (Kari Jylhä)
Harro Koskinen (b. 1945)
* The Finnish Way of Life / Noki!, 1971, serigraph and installation, Kiasma
ART SPEAKING OUT LOUD
Rodtsenko Society: Jyrki Siukonen, Jukka Mikkola, Jouni Hirvonen, Markku Kivinen, Erik Ahonen
* Agitation Ski, 1985, ”Read Books – Find out”
* Capitalist HUS (go away, vanish)!, 1985, serigraph, 64x46 cm
Teemu Mäki (b. 1967)
Riiko Sakkinen (b. 1976), http://www.riikosakkinen.com
Jani Leinonen (b. 1978), http://janileinonen.com/fi/