Helmi Juvonen

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Helmi Dagmar Juvonen (January 17, 1903 – October 1985) was an American artist active in Seattle, Washington. She is associated with the artists of the Northwest School.

Background

Helmi Dagmar Juvonen, known simply as "Helmi," was born the second daughter of Finnish immigrants in Butte, Montana on January 17, 1903. When she was 15, her family moved to Seattle, and in 1929 she accepted a scholarship to Cornish College of the Arts to study illustration and puppetry. An avid reader, Juvonen's favorite subjects involved the mythologies and spiritual practices of people around the world. Particularly fascinated with the myths and history of the native peoples of her own region, she began to research Northwest native art and became a frequent visitor to several of the area's tribal reservations. Juvonen's intense interest and respect for the cultural and spiritual aspects of Native American life made her a welcome guest at a number of sacred native ceremonies, where she did sketches of what she saw and experienced.

Career

Actively engaged with the burgeoning Seattle art community, Juvonen made and fostered friendships with a number of prominent artists and collectors including Seattle Art Museum founder Dr. Richard Fuller and painter Mark Tobey, with whom she developed a near-legendary obsession that became a frequent subject for her art.

Despite Juvonen's success as a regionally important artist, she was continually plagued by her 1930 diagnosis of manic depression. In 1959, Juvonen was committed to Northern State Hospital in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. After one year of confinement there, she was transferred to Oakhurst Infirmary in Elma, Washington where she spent the rest of her life. In spite of her surroundings, Juvonen tirelessly continued to produce art using whatever materials she was able to secure.

During the final years of her life Juvonen was the subject of a handful of major exhibitions at such institutions as the Frye Art Museum in Seattle and the Whatcom Museum of History and Art in Bellingham, Washington. In the twenty-two years since her death, public interest in Helmi Juvonen has grown, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. The Frye Art Museum presented her first museum show in 1976, and gave a more recent show of her work in 2012.^[1]

References

↑ "Helmi Juvonen: Dispatches to You (R.S.V.P.), October 13, 2012-February 10, 2013, Frye Art Museum.

Fritzsche, Ulrich (2001). Helmi Dagmar Juvonen - Her Life and Work: A Chronicle. Seattle, WA. p. 168. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/09755558307 |09755558307 [[Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs]]]] Check |isbn= value (help).
Ament, Deloris Tarzan Iridescent Light: The Emergence of Northwest Art (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002).
Wehr, Wesley, The Accidental Collector (University of Washington Press)

External links

Authority control	VIAF: 67824655

The Northwest School

Artists

Big Four	Guy Anderson Kenneth Callahan Morris Graves Mark Tobey

Others	Alfred Currier Doris Totten Chase William Cumming Richard Gilkey Paul Horiuchi Walter Isaacs Clayton James William Ivey Helmi Juvonen Leo Kenney John Franklin Koenig Philip McCracken Neil Meitzler Carl Morris Hilda Grossman Morris Ambrose McCarthy Patterson Mary Randlett Jay Steensma Charles Stokes George Tsutakawa Windsor Utley James Washington, Jr. Wesley Wehr

Institutions

Related movements

Pilchuck School

WikiProject Visual arts

Persondata
Name	Juvonen, Helmi
Alternative names
Short description	American artist
Date of birth	January 17, 1903
Place of birth
Date of death	October 1985
Place of death

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