EERO NELIMARKKA

Idealist, Artist, Museum Keeper and an Arts Educator

Eero Nelimarkka was born in Vaasa on the October 1891. He was the youngest child of the tailor Erkki Nelimarkka and his wife Maria. The family had moved to Vaasa to find work, but their roots were in Alajärvi already since 1700's. At the age of 12 Eero completed primary school and was trained as a confectioner trough apprenticeship. He received a scholarship by Vaasa Union of Craftsmen to study further in Stockholm and Lübeck.

Back in Finland Nelimarkka moved to Helsinki in 1909. To ensure his living he worked at the Löfström Bakery during the day. At night he studied drawing at the Society of Applied Arts. He wanted to attend Ateneum drawing school but, lacking secondary school diploma, was refused. Artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela advised him to go straight to Paris, which he in 1912 did. After returning home Eero Nelimarkka studied at the Helsinki University art faculty 1912-1914. His teacher was artist Eero Järnefelt.

Eero Nelimarkka got married in 1918 with Saima Alaviitala from Alahärmä and had four children: Eero Jaakko (1919 -1941), Katri Helena (1921-1983), Juha Antti Elias (1923-1990) and Esko Tuomas (1925-1997). As Eero Nelimarkka began his career as an artist in the 1910's he belonged to a group called Marraskuu (November). Nelimarkka's artistic production until 1920's includes several experiments with colours and shapes and contains cubistic and impressionist influences.

Eero Nelimarkka's art has always been grand. He is known for landscape paintings of Ostrobothnia: the plains and open skies. The paintings depicting farm buildings and cottage interiors convey a true Ostrobothnian atmosphere. Yet he did not only depict the Ostrobothnian nature, but painted also portraits, still lifes and urban views. His work shows people from different fields of life, artists, soldiers, professors and politicians, as well as ordinary men and women. Nelimarkka did not paint without a model - therefore the portraits of his wife Saima and himself cover his whole artistic career.

Eero Nelimarkka was a true Cosmopolitan. He travelled a lot throughout the years. No lack of money, even the wartimes could stop him from seeing new places and learning more about art. His works were exhibited in the museums and galleries in Finland as well as abroad: from Moscow in 1917 to China in 1958 and in between in Scandinavia, Kiel, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Milan, Rome, Brussels, The Haag, Prague, Warsaw, Zürich, Florence, Paris, Lübeck, Leningrad and New York.

Eero Nelimarkka was a founding and an honorary member of the Ostrobothnian Artists Association. In 1945 he established the Nelimarkka Foundation which is still the main owner of the Nelimarkka Museums collections. Eero Nelimarkka was given the title of professor in 1966. As an idealist he wanted to establish an art school and a museum in Alajärvi, because he believed that art belonged equally to everyone, and because he saw that the people far away from Helsinki, especially the people in the region of southern Ostrobothnia, had been left without that chance to discover art.