Touched by Image – Rolando and Siv Pieraccini Collection

The awaited exhibition presented a selection of art from the extensive Rolando and Siv Pieraccini art collection, newly donated to the Kerava Art Museum. It includes almost 1600 artworks by 15 Finnish artists.

The focus is on printmaking, but the collection includes also paintings, drawings, and sketches for example by Rafael Wardi, Onni Oja and Veikko Vionoja. Artists Elina Luukanen, Inari Krohn, Esa Riippa and Hannu Hyrske along with Wardi are expecially well represented in the collection.

The Italian born Rolando Pieraccini has lived in Finland for over 40-years. He is a prominent art collector and earned his living as a publisher of art prints and literature. In addition to printmaking and art books he published Italian and Anglo-American literature, in particular.

Italy is well-known for its talented printmakers and drafters and Pierracini has worked to build connections between them and Finnish artists. He has also made Finnish art known in Italy and elsewhere in the world.

The collection could be characterized by the same words that Pieraccini used to describe the verses of a 20th Century Italian poetry collection he published: It is about works that are “full of light, wonderous sweetness, the joy of youth, and at the same time a humble and silent melancholy, which is characteristic for an age of disillusionment.”

In 2009, Rolando Pieraccini was awarded the Finnish Finnish Lion Commander’s badge for his extensive work for Finnish visual arts and culture.