UNTO PUSA – THE MONUMENTALITY AND COSMIC SHAPES OF FIGURE

Maire Gullichsen and Modernism Series
Pori Art Museum, Project Room, October 10, 2008 – February 1, 2009

“The Creator made the world, the microcosm and the macrocosm, so expressively multifaceted that we need an infinite number of sciences to even glimpse the limitations of our knowledge and perception in relation to the Great Unknown.”
“No two pinecones are exactly alike, nor are any two leaves. Dewdrops never fall the same way onto the same leaf. Yet we know that here is a spruce cone, there is a birch leaf, this is a swallow’s tail, that is an ice crystal, and this is the flight pattern of a hawk.”

– Unto Pusa, Formula – Living Form. In Unto Pusa: On Art. Jyväskylä, 1982.

The three Graces of Greek mythology—Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia, or the Charites—represented brightness, joy, and prosperity. Unto Pusa became intrigued by the theme of the three Graces during the war, after receiving a book about the painter and sculptor Aristide Maillol (1861–1944). Pusa painted his first Three Graces piece in 1947, inspired by the spirit of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906). This work is the earliest known nude study by Pusa.

Pusa familiarized himself with the works of modern painting masters during his first trip to Paris in 1947. The journey was a profoundly inspiring experience. Visits to exhibitions and museums convinced him of the importance of Impressionism, Expressionism, and Cubism as the most significant movements in European art. However, the grandeur of Chartres Cathedral reminded him of the importance of tradition—a legacy not to be forgotten.

A retrospective exhibition of Fernand Léger and studies at Léger’s academy redirected Pusa’s art onto a new path. In 1949, he completed his fourth nude study, Seated Model, which reflected the artistic vision characteristic of his later works. Bold and purposeful black lines defined clear forms that emerged against uniform backgrounds. Pusa’s interest in the monumental art of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Byzantium deepened his thinking and broadened his understanding of the role of human figures in visual arts. Léger himself had been fascinated by Egyptian art since the early 1920s, a passion also praised by Amédée Ozenfant and Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier) in their Purist Manifesto of 1918.

Pusa revisited the Graces theme in the early 1960s, having refined his style to maturity. His Cézanne-inspired expression and brushwork had given way to an intellectual approach seeking strong stimuli. Stark outlines and independently composed color fields in the background formed a cohesive whole. Influences filtered from classical antiquity deepened further after Pusa’s visit to Pompeii. For example, the 1963 painting Three Graces is dominated by a glowing red monochromatic background. At the same time, the figures in his paintings were evolving into pure compositional forms, which could be replaced by any other shapes.

From the mid-1960s onward, Pusa’s paintings began to include statements and social participation. This trend culminated in the 1968 painting Flagellants, a commentary on the fate of Old Finland’s peasantry in the Karelian region—a work championing the oppressed against oppressors. Over time, the artist’s interest in colors intensified. Pusa returned to the theme of the nude female figure in one of his last works, the large-scale painting Big Iita. By then, clear contours had been replaced by futuristic depictions of motion and fragmented color treatments resembling facets. Alongside intellectual rigor, emotion now also guided his work. Big Iita is filled with warmth and sensuality.