collection | general collection | S | SALMINEN ilmari

collection | general collection | S | SALMINEN ilmari

SALMINEN ilmari

[1929, Finlande — 2008, Finlande]

During the war, when he was only 14, Ilmari Salminen, nicknamed Imppu, moved from Helsinki to Petäjävesi, a small village in central Finland, to help his uncle who owned a farm. After his uncle’s death in 1986, he inherited the property. Upon retirement, he settled in the woods in a log cabin lent by a blacksmith friend. He transformed his small house into a kind of museum, which he called Imppulandia, filled with his drawings, collages, and collected objects: army uniforms, telephones, photographs, coins, banknotes, and so on. From 1994 onward, he began working diligently on his graphic production, using news photographs—with a particular interest in members of royal families—as well as representations of political figures, celebrities, animals, horse races, and also landscapes and cities of Finland.