Juhana Blomstedt Posthumous Exhibition at Galerie Daniel Gervis

Galerie Daniel Gervis in Paris presents a posthumous homage to Finnish abstract painter Juhana Blomstedt (1937–2011), who died last summer while the exhibition was being prepared. The show, running from October 20 to November 26, 2011, functions as a mini-retrospective with a non-chronological hang. Key works include 'Unelma Valosta' (1998), two identical canvases with slight color variations creating a kinetic effect, and 'Conversation sur rouge' (2006), a combustion-like surface with hypnotic green or blue light. Blomstedt's painting is described as rhythmically silent, influenced by Vasarely in his youth but moving beyond perceptual preoccupations, and akin to Kandinsky's ideas of dissolving the real into gesture and color. The Möbius strip motif appears in several compositions, symbolizing a path to rebirth after pictorial exploration. The exhibition includes 'Sans-titre' (2008) with three blue circles and an ambivalent mouth drawing. Blomstedt once stated: 'It is easy for the painter to say what he wants, it is less easy to remove what he does not want to say.' The review by Élodie Pouchès emphasizes the pulsating, minimalist partition of the works, evoking the genesis of light and darkness over Finland.