Yrjö EDELMANN

Born in 1941 in Helsinki, Finland
Died in 2016 in Upplands-Bro, Sweden

Yrjö Edelmann combines the classic tradition of the Old Masters with an enigmatic image of the contemporary world. Yrjö Edelmann’s graphic art explores the trompe l’oeil, that classic technique proved by other great artists over the centuries but now fallen into disuse. In this way, the Swede explores a ne line, that space that separates the imagination from reality, or day from night. His work, midway between dream and experimentation, is situated in a void in which the eye wanders through a maze of in nite proportions. Yrjö Edelmann began his career as a cartoonist and an illustrator. In the 1950s, he studied drawing, crafts and design in Stockholm. Influenced by French surrealism, the artist developed his own pictorial language before experimenting with hyper- realism and becoming absorbed with the creation of his packaging. Today, Yrjö Edelmann is one of the best known Swedish artists, after his breakthrough in 1993, when he became the second Swede (after Bertil Vallien) to participate in the advertising campaign of the famous brand Absolut Vodka. Later on, his parcels would become increasingly elaborate and sophisticated. His compositions are made of several cleverly arranged boxes, wrapped in all sorts of shiny paper. Yrjö Edelmann has been dubbed “the great illusionist”, because few artists are able to achieve his level of dexterity and technicality.