Tor Arne

Painting #15, 2015-2018
oil on canvas
42 x 152 cm

In Finnish National Gallery Collection

The deepest essence of TOR ARNE’S paintings consist of colour, light and their relationship with our world of experiences, our ability to experience things. While physical perception, the landscape, experiences and emotion always underlie Tor Arne’s paintings, the works are not figurative. They represent only themselves. These paintings do not chatter, they exist and whisper, and therefore the viewer must calm down before them to look, feel and surrender.  

In the course of eight decades, Tor Arne (b. 1934, Turku) has shown his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Serlachius Museum Gösta in Mänttä, Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo, Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki, Kunsthalle Helsinki and University Art Museum in Austin. His work is included in collections such as Ateneum Art Museum, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art and WAM Turku Art Museum. Arne was a long-time teacher and headmaster of the Free Art School in Helsinki. In 2019 he received the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland.

Painting #17, 2015-2018
oil on canvas
68 x 142 cm

In private collection

Painting #11, 2015-2018
oil pastel on paper
40 x 55 cm

In private collection

Untitled, 2013-2015
oil on canvas
55 x 160 cm

In Finnish National Gallery Collection

Untitled, 2015-2018
oil on canvas
60,5 x 121 cm

In private collection

Painting #1, 2013-2015
oil on canvas
162 x 56 cm

Paintings 2013–2015
5 – 29 Mar 2015

Paintings 2013–2015
5 – 29 Mar 2015

Untitled, 2015-2018
oil on canvas
70 x 61 cm

In private collection

Untitled, 2000
oil on canvas
57 x 168 cm

In private collection

Untitled, 2013-2015
oil on canvas
56 x 162 cm

In Sara Hildén Art Museum collection

Painting #3, 2013-2015
oil on canvas
65 x 60 cm

Untitled, 2015-2018
oil on canvas
68 x 142 cm

In private collection

Selection of available works. For the full list, please contact galerie(at)anhava.com

Untitled, 1984
oil on canvas
115 x 158 cm

Untitled, 1989
watercolour on paper, framed
68 x 89 cm

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BioCVExhibitions

Exhibitions

Bio

TOR ARNE (b. 1934) is a Finnish artist almost solely known and appreciated by experts. This is infuriating, and it tells a great deal about the mechanisms of our art world. If an artist, however important, is personally not interested in publicity, his or her works may remain unknown even among connoisseurs of art. This is clearly the case with Tor Arne: he is the painter’s painter, in the same way as someone like Gunnar Björling is the writer’s writer in Finnish literature – clear, deep and uncompromising – and almost completely unknown to the public.

When a painting truly succeeds as a painting, using visual means to give the viewer a deep feeling of communion with something greater, the shared existence that we usually never attain, it is difficult to say anything sensible about it. Words seem to escape the deepest essence of such a painting, which is colour, light and their relationship with the world of experiences, our ability to experience things. Such a painting does not gossip; it is, it whispers and therefore one must calm down before it to look, feel and open up.

While physical perception, the landscape, experiences and emotion always underlie Tor Arne’s paintings, the works are not figurative. They represent only themselves. These paintings give, with visual means, the viewer a deep feeling of a connection with something greater, a shared existence that we usually do not attain. Their deepest essence consists of colour, light and their relationship with our world of experiences, our ability to experience things.

These paintings do not chatter, they exist and whisper, and therefore the viewer must calm down before them to look, feel and surrender.

CV

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T O R  A R N E

Born 1934 in Turku

ART STUDIES
1956–1959 Free Art School, Helsinki
Study trips abroad

TEACHING POSITIONS

  • 1962–1988
    • Instructor, Free Art School
  • 1966–1988
    • Rector, Free Art School

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • 2024
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2022
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  •  2018
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2015
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2013
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2011
    • EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo
  • 2010
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2007
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2003
    • Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
  • 2001
    • Galleria Kari Kenetti, Helsinki
  • 1995
    • Galerie Artek, Helsinki
  • 1993
    • Galerie Artek, Helsinki
  • 1990
    • Galerie Artek, Helsinki
  • 1987
    • Kluuvi Gallery, Helsinki
  • 1985
    • Galerie Artek, Helsinki
  • 1982
    • Galerie Artek, Helsinki
  • 1980
    • Kluuvi Gallery, Helsinki (together with Carolus Enckell)
  • 1979
    • Galerie Artek, Helsinki
  • 1975
    • Galerie Artek, Helsinki
  • 1973
    • Galerie Artek, Helsinki
  • 1971
    • Galerie Artek, Helsinki (together with Carolus Enckell)

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

  • 2017
    • Summer Days, Serlachius Museum Gösta
  • 2015
    • Shift in the Shadows, Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki
  • 2001
    • Hockey Flowers – Contemporary Finnish Art from the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Collection, Kunsthalle Helsinki; The Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Turku; The Oulu Art Museum
  • 1998
    • Points of Contact, Kunsthalle Helsinki
  • 1990
    • Finske Visjoner (Finnish Visions), Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo
    • Contemporary Finnish Art, Copenhagen
  • 1988
    • Six Points of View, Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki
  • 1985
    • Fields of Seeing – The Free Art School 1935–1985, Kunsthalle Helsinki
  • 1984
    • Arne – Enckell – Osipow, Kunsthalle Helsinki
  • 1983
    • By the River – New Finnish Art, Pori Art Museum
    • AKT 1983, Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki
    • Exhibition of Finnish Art, Berlin
    • 24 Finnish Artists, Copenhagen
  • 1982
    • The Free Art School Today, Pori Art Museum
  • 1980
    • International Exhibition of Painting, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France
  • 1979–1980
    • Finnish Constructivism, University Art Museum, Austin, Texas; Ringling Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida, USA
  • 1975
    • The Free Art School 1971–1975, Kluuvi Gallery, Helsinki
  • 1970
    • Finnish Artists’ Annual Exhibition
  • 1965
    • Triennial Exhibition of the Fine Arts Academy of Finland
  • 1963
    • Ryhmä 4 (Group 4), Kunsthalle Helsinki
  • 1961
    • Ryhmä 4 (Group 4), Kluuvi Gallery, Helsinki
    • Ryhmä 4 (Group 4), Kunsthalle Helsinki
  • 1960
    • Finnish Artists’ Annual Exhibition
      A Decade of Nordic Art, Odense
  • 1959
    • Ryhmä 4 (Group 4), Turku Art Museum
    • Taidesalonki, Helsinki
    • Young Artists’ Biennial of Paris

PUBLIC WORKS

  • 1979
    • Kinetic art work for a performance of Skryabin’s Promotheus Fantasy, Finlandia Hall, Helsinki
  • 1974
    • Vastavaloa (Contre-Jour), mural, National Archives of Finland, Helsinki
  • 1970
    • Mural, Lapila Primary School, Kerava, Helsinki

PRIZES AND AWARDS

  • 2019
    • Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland
  • 1991
    • Prize of Honour of the Maire Gullichsen 80th Birthday Foundation
  • 1990
    • The Marcus Collin Prize
  • 1974
    • The Art Prize of Uusimaa Province
  • 1973
    • First prize in the mural competition for the National Archives of Finland

WORKS IN COLLECTIONS

Amos Anderson Art Museum
Ateneum Art Museum
City of Espoo Collection
City of Helsinki Collection
Lahti Art Museum
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art
Oulu Art Museum
Pori Art Museum
Rovaniemi Art Museum
Finnish State
City of Tampere
Wäinö Aaltonen Museum

AS HEAD OF THE FREE ART SCHOOL
Reforms of the curriculum and work of the Free Art School beginning in 1971 together with Juhani Pallasmaa, chairman of the board of the school. As a result of the reforms, the school changed from a private school into a vocational institution receiving public funding.

Initiator and leader of the publication activities of the Free Art School. Published works:
Josef Albers: Värien vuorovaikutus (Interaction of Colour) 1978
Josef Albers: Värien vuorovaikutus (paperback version) 1979
Hans Hofmann: Esseitä (Essays) 1983
Josef Albers: Taito nähdä (Selected Writings) 1985

Participated in the publishing of the following works:
Agnes Martin: Hiljaisuus taloni lattialla (Silence on the Floor of my House) 1990
Ad Reinhardt: Taide taiteena (Art as Art) 1995