On The World’s Shore – Reidar Särestöniemi 100 Years
8.2.–1.6.2025
14 May 2025 will mark the centenary of Reidar Särestöniemi’s birth.
Marie-Louise and Gunnar Didrichsen, founders of the Didrichsen Art Museum, visited Reidar Särestöniemi for the first time in 1968 in Särestö, Kittilä. Särestöniemi's intensely colourful, distinctive art appealed to them, and in the years that followed they bought several works from the artist. The Didrichsen Art Museum organised solo exhibitions with the artist in 1970, 1973, 1975 and 1978. The museum also held a memorial exhibition of Särestöniemi in 1981 and solo exhibitions in 1995 and 2010.
In addition to works from the Didrichsen collection, the exhibition includes works from private and museum collections in Finland. The main theme of the exhibition is Särestöniemi's special connection with nature, a strong identification with the surrounding environment reflected in his art. He expressed this in his works with a distinctive imagery and an imaginative treatment of material and colour. For Särestöniemi, working from Lapland was essential – a decision that in many ways shaped his entire career.
The artworks' connection to nature is both palpably direct and spiritual. Observing and being inspired by the environment is accompanied by an experience that reaches towards a broader understanding of the relationship between the self and nature. The landscapes of Lapland, the depiction of the seasons and the animal themes in the artworks are filtered through Särestöniemi's experience and are also partly based on Sámi and Lappish beliefs. The artist described identifying with nature, blending into the fells and marshes and sometimes transforming into a ptarmigan, sometimes into a lynx. The connection with nature was an act of introspection. The cycle of the seasons is strongly present in the works -– by painting, the artist celebrated a short but intense period of light, foreshadowed the changing seasons and reflected his own feelings.
Särestöniemi increasingly took a stand on nature conservation issues in the 1970s as Lapland's industrialisation plans progressed. The threat of the damming of the Ounasjoki river, which flows next to Särestö, concretised this concern. As a public figure, he constantly expressed his support for the environmental movement.
Opening hours
8.2.2025–1.6.2025
Tue–Sun 10–18
Mon closed
Public introductions to the exhibition
In Finnish Sat and Sun 1pm and 3pm, Wed 3pm.
In Swedish Sun at 12 noon
In English every first Saturday of the month at 12 noon.





