4–28.6.2026

IN FRONT OF A PAINTING
Words are obstacles, at least in the world which I
inhabit.
If a painting awakens something in you, rejoice in it,
there was something alive in the painting, as is in you.
– Tor Arne, 1998

The Galerie Anhava spring 2026 exhibition program will conclude with a bright effortless joint exhibition by two maestros, Tor Arne (1934–2025) and Paul Osipow (b. 1939), with a focus on color, light and line.

The idea for the exhibition came about when Arne suggested a joint exhibition to Osipow in the summer of 2024. Longstanding colleagues and friends, both artists were founding members and residents of the artist’s terraced house established in Riihitie in Järvenpää in 1967. In 1984, Arne and Osipow exhibited together in the exhibition Arne–Osipow–Enckell organized at the Helsinki Kunsthalle.

Tor Arne, who passed away in August 2025, had already been working extensively for the upcoming exhibition. The small-scale works now to be presented were assembled on a large table in the artist’s studio in Oulunkylä. The final mounting for the works has been completed with the help of the artist’s trusted colleagues and family. The familiar horizontal rectangular shape of Arne’s works is repeated in most of the works, but also a few curved, round and polygonal works are included in the exhibition.

Despite their compact size, Arne’s paper-based strips filled with layers of oil pastels are full of things to see. The narrow form of the paintings, which draw on the collage technique, has everything essential condensed in glowing colors. The living surface beckons one closer, as if breathing in daylight.

Paul Osipow presents new works on paper and paintings that the artist has made in the spring of 2026 while working in Grassina, Italy. Raisin buns, onions, croissants and sausages from the market and bakery have been recorded on thick paper with a bamboo stick dipped in ink. The main actor is the confidently forward flowing free line. The placement of the motif on the sheet tenses the pictorial space. In the paintings, classic motifs from dining tables shine in bright clear colours. The everyday settings evoked in the paintings are characterized by rough simplicity, strong colors and delicious, thick brushstrokes.

“The main thing is how the colors and lines bicker with each other in the paintings.”
– Paul Osipow, 1984

TOR ARNE (1934–2025) studied at the Free School of Art and taught and served as its teacher and principal from 1962–88. In the course of eight decades, Tor Arne has had numerous group and solo exhibitions in Finland and abroad. He has work in many prestigious public collections in Finland, including those of the Ateneum Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Pori Art Museum, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Sara Hildén Art Museum, and Rovaniemi Art Museum. He also has work in numerous private collections. In 2019, he was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Finnish Lion and in 2020, the Swedish Prins Eugen Medal.

PAUL OSIPOW studied at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts from 1958 to 1962, at the Free Art School, and at the University of Texas from 1975 to 1976. He has work in numerous prestigious public and private collections, including the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Gothenburg Museum of Art, the National Museum of Norway, and the Finnish National Gallery. He has presented his work in extensive solo exhibitions in several venues, including Kunsthalle Helsinki (2019), Amos Anderson Art Museum (2007), Kunsternes Hus in Oslo (2005–2006) and the Finnish Museum of Contemporary Art (1993). Paul Osipow has also had a long career as a teacher, having taught at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, the Lahti Art Institute and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. In 1989 Osipow was awarded the Swedish Prins Eugen medal.

–Hanna Huitu