Raimo Utriainen (1927-1994) was a pioneer of Finnish abstract sculpture. He studied sculpture, architecture and mathematics and stressed the connection between these three in his art. For Utriainen art was a symbol of technical progress and the artist “an inventor, an explorer and a visionary”. Utriainen was a constructivist who sought and emphasised kinetic, dynamic structures in his work which expressed experiences in time and space.
The Raimo Utriainen Collection comprises some 150 sculptures as well as paintings, drawings, watercolours and studies. The works were deposited in EMMA in October 2006. Sculptures cover a period of almost 40 years comprising expressive bronze sculptures from the 1950s and 1960s and constructive bronze cast works and welded iron-rod works from the 1960s. Towards the end of the 1960s Utriainen began to create works from flat metal slivers and steel and aluminium slats where the sculptural impression came from the combination of airy, spiralling, transparent surfaces. Changes in the light and the angle of vision the slats and the intervening space create optical impressions of and sensual forms. In contrast to the disciplined nature of his sculptures Utriainen's paintings are strongly expressionist.