John Zurier

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I just came across a US artist John Zurier, and was taken by his beautiful 

paintings in his Muuratsalo series. Muuratsalo is an island in lake Päijänne in 

Finland where Alvar Aalto's Experimental House is situated (see here). In this 

series of Zurier there are also paintings called Paimio, Keuruu, Turku, Hattula 

and Raivola, other places in Finland (see here).

Zurier:

I remember the first painting problem

that really engaged me. I tried to paint 

the sky seen between two buildings so that

the whole of my painting would be 

nothing but an empty blue space. I wanted

the painting to be filled with a pale 

empty sky. I thought it would be very

easy to do, but found it nearly 

impossible. The painting was a failure

and I had to put it off for a long time.

In a way, my concerns now are not

much different in that I want the maximum 

sense of color, light, and space with the most

simple and direct means. I think 

the Japanese painter Ike No Taiga (1723–1776)

was right: the most difficult 

thing to achieve in painting is creating

a space where absolutely nothing has 

been painted.

John Zurier 

January 2008

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John Zurier
Muuratsalo 1, 2007, oil on linen, 84 x 58 inches
johnzurier.com
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John Zurier
Muuratsalo 2, 2008, oil on linen, 84 x 58 inches
johnzurier.com
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John Zurier
Muuratsalo 3, 2009, oil on linen, 84 x 58 inches
johnzurier.com
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John Zurier
Muuratsalo 4, 2009, oil on linen, 84 x 58 inches
johnzurier.com
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