Behind his Pictures

The book "Behind his Pictures" describes vividly, along with many pictures, what all the 85-year-old visual artist has done. He has done everything in the field of visual art; first he studied, then he taught, wrote, painted, sculpted, made TV films, books, founded a Nordic cultural magazine, wrote in a newspaper, and blogged in the web. Rich and high-quality artwork makes the book easy to read. It includes the growth of a Vyborish boy with his pictures from a 3-year-old child to a 85-year-old, vibrant old man. Aalto has touched and influenced an astonishing number of lives, and he has accomplished much. He is a true Renaissance man.

Eeli Aalto was born in Vyborg on February 6, 1931. After the Winter War, the family fled from Vyborg to Oulu. After graduating from Lyseo secondary schoolof Oulu, he started his art studies at the Finnish Academy of Arts in Helsinki, continuing his studies at the André Lhote Academy in Paris. After returning to Oulu, he was eager to develop the city's cultural life. Aalto painted, carved, made TV shows, taught - everything he did was rooted in his artistic outlook. He was also known for his TV films. Among them, notably, Jussi award. Finally, he painted 100 pictures of the Oulu series, where his son Markus made one of the first online exhibitions in the world in 1998. In 2012, Aalto received the Golden Roulette Award for the Oulu cultural person. Aalto has also written a book about artist Vilho Lammesta and Reidar Särestöniemi.