Lot 32: JORMA PURANEN (b.1951 Finnish)

JORMA PURANEN (b.1951 Finnish)
Icy Prospects 31, 2006
oversized chromogenic print
signed in ink on typed label with credit, title, date and edition '6/6' on backing board
56½ x 67½in. (143.5 x 171.5cm.)

Jorma Puranen, Jorma Puranen/Galerie Blickensdorff, 2007, n.p.(fig.F); In Natura -- A Finnish Trilogy, Photology, 2008, n.p.

Icy Prospects is a kind of fabric of facts, fantasy, geographical imagination and intellectual landscapes...They also provide the expression of the sublime, the picturesque, the mysterious and the unknown.

JORMA PURANEN, 2006

DISTINCTIVELY NORDIC
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
This work is number 6 from the sold-out edition of 6 + 2 AP.

Of his image-making process, Puranen states: 'In Icy Prospects, the possibility of direct viewing is completely denied. What we see now is a mere reflection of the landscape/seascape on the surface of black glossy wooden board. The reflective qualities of the wooden board's surface draw the resulted photographs of Icy Prospects into a space between photography and painting. In this work almost hallucinatory visions are like the echoes of ancient expeditions lost in the Arctic seas.' (Artist statement, 2006) Icy Prospects 31 was taken by the Arctic Ocean in the northernmost Lapland of Norway.

Puranen studied at the University of Art and Design Helsinki. His work has been widely shown in the US and Europe, including the Helsinki School travelling exhibitions, and is held in dozens of institutional and private collections, such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. In 2005 he was the recipient of the Pro Finlandia award. Puranen lives and works in Helsinki.