Vainio, Jyrki :: Finnish art - Kari Suomalainen 1

Kari, editorial cartoon 23.6.1961

Artist: Kari Suomalainen (All)

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Kari, editorial cartoon 23.6.1961 Comic Art

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Printed cartoon

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Kari, editorial cartoon, ca. 1970

Artwork Details

Title:	Kari, editorial cartoon 23.6.1961
Artist:	Kari Suomalainen (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Illustration
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	218
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	11/24/2021
Comic Art Archive:

Description

"Waiting for sunset, Midsummer 1961".
I usually look for good representative samples of artists' work. I rarely have a "grail" in mind, where I would be after a single, specific piece of art. But this certainly falls into that category.
About 15-20 years ago when I started collecting Kari Suomalainen's books and studying his work, I declared this to be his greatest cartoon, as well as the greatest editorial cartoon ever drawn in Finland.
Kari depicted parties in the Parliament as personified caricatures. Here the parties opposing president Kekkonen at the end of his first term are waiting for his sun to set � but it's summer in the Arctic, where the sun goes down towards the horizon... but never quite seems to dip below it. Kari couldn't know how prophetic this cartoon would turn out to be: Kekkonen would remain president for TWENTY MORE YEARS.
Kari donated the majority of his work to the Visavuori museum. I got a chance to look at their records about ten years ago and learned that this piece had been either sold or given as a gift. So it was out there, somewhere. I set myself a lifelong collecting goal: one day I would find this cartoon.
It happened sooner than I thought. In November 2021 it just unceremoniously popped up in auction and sold in the typical range of Kari's cartoons.
What I loved about the cartoon in print was its minimalism and very effective use of a strict black-white-gray palette. I prepared myself mentally for the fact that in its original form it wouldn't look like that: it would be black-yellow-blue. But even so, the original is in fairly poor condition: the cartoon has visible foxing (brown dots) all over the image area and the caption has been written under the image in felt-tip (after the fact, I presume), which has faded badly.
But, what can you do... this is THE historic piece of art I wanted and this is now the condition it is in.
(I consulted a conservator, but they said trying to do something about the dots would be very risky, because the drawing has watercolor and white water-based gouache on it).
The drawing has been inscribed on a nickname-basis to the CEO of the publisher of Kari's paper in the 70s and 80s. I suspect this cartoon � already old at that point � was given as a gift during that period. So either Kari or the CEO remembered this cartoon as a particularly good one, and it was considered worthy enough to be on the wall of the big boss.

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About the Owner

	Jyrki Vainio
Joined:	October 2005
Last Login:	September 2025
Ebay Id:	jyrki_vainio
Website:	http://www.jyrkivainio.com/
Country:	FINLAND
On CAF:	Jyrki's Want List Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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