Otto Mäkilä

• Otto Mäkilä : Satu, 1933, 33x41, oil, canvas (A III 2040) [© The Holders of Copyrights] (24.2 kB)

Mystic Surrealism became the instrument of Mäkilä's inner vision. Mäkilä did not want to rely on pure imagiantion in his endeavour to reach a deeper reality of the soul and to reveal his own inner world, aiming instead at bringing to the surface involuntary associations lying in the depths of the mind. Truth was hidden somewhere and waited to be revealed. Fantasy (1933) and Summer Night (1938) belong to a mystic and meditative world, lacking the threatening atmosphere of the visions of many continental Surrealists.

One of the most profound questions addressed by Otto Mäkilä's art was the credibility of art: The secret of creative work to my mind lies in the fact that it produces a new kind of earnestness in place of experimentation, certainty in place of uncertainty. How this is to be achieved is another story, but unless we keep an eye on this matter, we are left to drift without a compass, without a sun, without stars, without faith.

Satu