"I usually think of the motifs in my paintings as people in relation to rooms and architecture. In Grande Tëte (Aalto) I’m letting the big head represent the room inhabited by characters. The composition grew out of an intuitive balancing between shapes and meanings. The girl standing in profile is emotionally connected to the large portrait. That’s emphasized through a ribbon of colors framing the face and echoed in the multicolored dyed haircut. Further, beams of thin lines radiates from the head of the standing woman. Those lines are of course mimicking hair but it’s also an attempt to render lines of thought. They are organized in wavy yet unruly strokes as if to give a hint of her frame of mind.
The Aalto chair is gently interrupting the gaze of the large portrait. A invitation to rest and contemplation. I’m interested in Aalto’s ideas of the healing powers of architecture and, in my interpretation, the healing powers of art.
The small copper plate painting with the tender gesture of a skeleton striking a young girls hair is a version of the motif Death and the Maiden. A common theme in Renaissance art.
Perhaps here less threatening and sinister than usual. The young boy in the yellow sweater offers the content of a glass bowl to the beholder. The bowl is empty. But it also an eye."
Jens Fänge