Chianciano Art Museum Critical Analysis Artist: Anna-Maija Rissanen Art Critic: Timothy Warrington 1
ICAC International Confederation of Art Critics Critical Analysis Artist: Anna-Maija Rissanen Art Critic: Timothy Warrington
The Museum The Museum of Art of Chianciano hosts a series of collections ranging from Neolithic and Asiatic to Contemporary art. There are approximately a thousand works on display. Visitors are able to view paintings and sculptures by artists such as Tom Nash, Salvador Dali, Sir Henry Moore, Frances Turner, Mario Schifano, Damien Hirst, Brian Willsher and Albert Louden, drawings by the likes of Magritte, Guttuso and Munch; historical works from Royal Collections and original etchings by masters such as Dürer and Rembrandt. The museum is known for organising annual international events, including the Chianciano International Art Award and the Biennale of Chianciano. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) Joachim and the Angel Original woodcut, circa 1504 4
Sir Henry Moore (1898-1986) Head Bronze Sculpture 5
6 ICAC International Confederation of Art Critics
The Critic Timothy Warrington was born in Birmingham in 1944 and is a critical writer and curator based in London. Warrington s career has taken him all around the world in the search for art to exhibit in London. He was part of the organisation that hosted the largest and most important exposition of Bulgarian art ever curated outside Bulgaria, showing 300 artists. The exhibition was hosted in collaboration with the Bulgarian Embassy in London and was inaugurated by the Bulgarian Ambassador Mr Stancoff. The Slovenian Printmakers Exhibition was another reminder of the wonderful talent that Timothy brought to London, artists that are recognised and respected all around the world. Italian Views at the Lord Leighton Museum, curated by Timothy, was also a great success and a spotlight into contemporary Italian Art from institutions such as the Academy of Fine Art in Florence, Academy of Fiorino in Florence and The Academy of Fine Art in Rome. Warrington has curated numerous books and writes opinions and exhibition critiques in the UK and the USA. Notably, he was responsible for the main publication related to Brian Willsher s Bronzes, an artist who taught at the Tate and was praised by Sir Henry Moore as an artistic genius. Timothy s critical writing is very sophisticated - he has the power to translate the artist s thoughts to the viewer with extreme clarity and competence. He was a member of the jury of Chianciano International Art Award alongside people like Gerard Bruneau who started his career wih Andy Warhol. 7
8 Connections Mixed media on canvas - 145 x 240 cm, 2016
The Artist Born in 1983, in Järvenpää, Finland, Anna-Maija Rissanen is a Belgian-Finnish landscape painter who focuses mainly on painting inner meditative landscapes of water and rock, between western and eastern representation, between abstract and figurative. In 2009, Rissanen graduated with an MA in Fine Arts from the Royal Fine-Arts Academy of Brussels and also qualified as an art teacher. From 2012-2013, she studied techniques of traditional Chinese painting at the China Art Academy in Hangzhou. Rissanen has taken part in several solo and group exhibitions across Europe and China, including Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Helsinki, London, Mannheim, Guangzhou, Beijing, Arnheim and Viljandi. In 2016, she organised her third big solo exhibition with great success, which received over a thousand visitors. From 2009 to 2016, Rissanen has had 14 solo exhibitions and taken part in over 40 group shows including art fairs and competitions both international and Finnish. Rissanen is also a teacher. She teaches basics of traditional Chinese art and western art to adults in Finland. She is also a travel guide, bringing groups of people to China, teaching them basics of Chinese art and customs. Rissanen is also an active citizen, taking part in different local associations towards developing the cultural sector in Järvenpää. She is also the president of local Art s association, member of Finland s Painters Union, and president of the local Junior chamber International. Rissanen experiments with different techniques in her works, often mixing Western and Eastern pictorial conventions. She frequently paints from a bird s-eye perspective, thus facilitating a visual journey between the details and the whole landscape extending towards the horizon. Landscapes are not limited to a specific place, but rather have elements that evoke many different places. She tries to paint the feeling she has in a landscape rather than the exact view. She tries not to be too obvious about what is represented and always leave room for the viewer s own imagination and memories of the landscape. For her it is important to make landscapes that are universal, that can touch and go beyond cultural boundaries. 9
Mountains like clouds Mixed media on canvas - 98 x 103 cm, 2016 10
The Critique Anna-Maija Rissanen is an exceptional Belgian-Finnish painter gifted with the talent of conceiving evocative, meditative and immersive compositions. Crashing waves, breathtaking vistas of land, sea and mountain ranges, in a highly distinctive and alluring style that captures artistic traditions from both the West and East, in a fascinating journey through abstract and figurative expressions of creativity. The fluidity of her unique touch and brushwork, communicated through introspective compositions, enhance fundamental aspects that provoke and attract the viewer into a distant instinctive and subconscious world. Undeniably, this complex artist is searching for a balance between the delicate nature of her artistic vision and the fierce power of her innate and innate creative energy. Rissanen s atmospheric perspectives are redolent of the English Romanticist landscape painter William Turner, also known as the painter of light. Both Turner and Rissanen are capable of capturing and giving life to their art using chiaroscuro and the illusion of depth. Vast spaces are portrayed skillfully, whilst depicting the moods of nature beautifully and expressively. Rissansen paints her subject matter and surroundings with exactitude and truth, simultaneously challenging our perception and imagination, as she experiments and explores the infinite essence of light itself, analysing and focusing on reflections. She conveys a different kind of truth to Turner, a minimalist approach to interpreting emotion and communicating ideas via intricate and immensely gentle use of colour, form and line. Inspired by ancient Chinese watercolours, this artist arouses a sense of timeless stillness, reaching sublime transcendence and spirituality. The overwhelming portrayal of the intangible soul of nature appears to effuse and emanate from the surface of the canvas, emphasising the destructive and mighty forces of the Earth, the symbolic emanation of a creator s essence and, most importantly, the spirit of the spectator. From a distance, Rissanen s sceneries resemble a faraway scenario that appears simultaneously tranquil, exoitic and chaotic, thus bewitching and inviting the viewer for closer inspection. On second analysis of the artworks, the observer perceives the swarming cluster of fine and organic details where the eye and mind can meander leading to the possibility of capturing, understanding and foreseeing a deeply personal and meaningful vision in which to indulge. Certainly, Rissanen s riveting and enchanting paintings are not only a pleasing and stunning visual aesthetic, but they have the outstanding ability to offer a meditative and sentimental experience that aids the viewer on the endless quest towards discovering, evolving and reaching a higher plane. Timothy Warrington International Confederation of Art Critics 11
Longing Gouache, acrylic and ink on canvas- 40 x 98,3 cm, 2014. Morning Mixed media on canvas, 14,5 x 56,5 cm, 2016 12
View 1 rocks Mixed media on canvas, 50 x 50 cm, 2016 13
14 Pebbles Mixed media on canvas, 90 x 33,5 cm, 2015
Universe Mixed media on canvas, 178 x 273 cm, 2016 15
16 International Confederation of Art Critics www.international-confederation-art-critics.org