New information about the mysterious Finnish artist Iria Leino: she bequeathed her fortune to yoga centres

Visual artist Iria Leino stands under the ladder. The armpit has a light cat. Black cat climbs ladders. — Iria Leino has a painting called Accident in the background, dating from 1969. The inclusion of the ladder and the black cat shows a sense of humour.

Iria Leino was a Finnish artist who worked in New York and shunned publicity. She left behind a thousand works that are now attracting interest around the world.

Since then, Leino’s works have received an extraordinary amount of international publicity. They have been exhibited and written about in prestigious publications.

Now Irja Leino’s apartment is empty: the last of her paintings went into storage this week.

– On Tuesday, I went to Iria’s loft. There were two moving vans in front of the building. It stopped. The windows had been washed and through them you could see the landscape for the first time. The spirit of Iria was no longer there,” says Sihvonen.

Leino had moved to the former factory building as early as the 1960s and lived for 56 years.

According to Sihvonen, Leino did not consider cleaning to be particularly important, and therefore the apartment was always dusty and junk, the windows dirty.

Migration cars parking down the street in New York. — Visual artist Iria Leino’s loft apartment was located on Greene Street in SoHo, New York. On Tuesday, moving vans were waiting in front of it.

The ashes of a Finnish artist were scattered in Sicily

Sihvonen met Leino through her husband in the early 1990s while living in New York. Friendship remained until death.

According to the pollution, the aim of the Foundation is to promote Leino’s art. It has about € 600,000 in funds from the sale of Leino’s Paris studio.

Leino lived in his model years in the capital of fashion.

– He also had a small villa in Taormina, Italy, where he often visited. He loved its peaceful lifestyle that differed from stressful Paris, Saasto says.

At the beginning of April, Sihvonen and the pollution went to spread Leino’s ashs according to the artist’s last wish in the beloved Taorma, a beloved in Sicily.

Visual artist Iria Leino stands in front of her painting in 1969. — As a former model, Iria Leino knew how to pose. The photo is from 1969.

The picture shows an abstract painting with red and black. — Iria Leino’s Another Elephant No.2 was created in 1968. It is currently on show in Helsinki.

“An impressive New York painter”

Leino is now in a surprising boost. His art exhibition was held last fall at Harper’s Gallery in New York. All its works were sold.

His paintings are currently on display at Gallery Forsblom in Helsinki. There, nine of the exhibition’s 17 works have been sold and four are reserved.

In May, the Swedish Larsen Warner gallery sets Leino’s works in Stockholm. Next up is Copenhagen. In addition, a new exhibition in New York is planned.

Leino and his art have been extensively written by the New York Times.

Iria Leino's abstract work with splashy points, green throughout. — Iria Leino’s 1969 work The Accident is shown in black and white in the main photo behind her.

Iria Leino's abstract painting, which is yellow throughout. — Iria Leino’s painting No Beginning No End (Sunrise) is from 1969.

Legacy goes to yoga centres

Although the works have been sold in exhibitions, there are still plenty of stock. The Foundation is intended to sell the rest of the paintings.

– We expect many of them to be sold or placed in museums. The Foundation will cease to exist after its purpose has been carried out, Saasto says.

Leino’s beneficiaries are two US yoga centers, for whom the artist tested the fund’s assets. When the foundation is discontinued, they inherit Leino.

– Yoga associations will receive the remaining funds of the foundation, whether it be money from the sale of paintings or the remaining paintings, says Saasto.

According to Sihvonen, yoga, meditation and Buddhism were very important to Leino.

– They were a way for him to calm the soul and the body. He always said that Yoga, in particular, saved his life when his eating disorder, which began in his modeling times, was at its worst.

Leino yoga at home, repeated the mantras while painting and went to retreats in the two yoga centers he left in the legacy. One is located in New York and the other in Virginia.

Buddha statue on the metal boxes and abstract painting using gray and rust red. — The work Untitled (1988) was in Iria Leino’s studio. Buddhism was important to Leino.

“Didn’t show his paintings to anyone”

Iria Leino had studied visual arts at the University of Art and Design University and the renowned École des Beaux arts in Paris.

After moving to Paris in the 1950s, he made a living by working as a model for Christian Dior, among others. In 1964, Leino got enough of the model world, moved to New York and began to paint.

Leino rarely held exhibitions during his lifetime. When he died, the large number of works also surprised Varpu Sihvonen, who knew Leino was painting.

– He didn’t show his paintings to anyone. I had only seen a few, Sihvonen says.

He says that a Loft of about 400 square meters was never allowed to go freely.

– When I was a guest, he went to the door and took the kitchen. It was as long as he was and then he escorted the guest back to the door.

According to Sihvonen, Leino’s social life was still lively until the late 1990s. He went to shows, galleries and invitations.

– Then he slowly began to close to his apartment and went anywhere. In addition to me, there were not many that he saw in his last years.

Iria Leino as a model, leans on her elbow and looks at the camera sometime in the 1950s. — Before moving to New York to paint, Iria Leino worked as a model in Paris. This photo is from 1959.

Leino lived on a grant

Leino’s life may seem glamorous, but Sihvonen said it was very modest in New York.

– Iriah was completely free of charge. He had an American Medicaid grant that paid him health insurance and home care, says Sihvonen.

Sihvonen describes Leino as a prepareding person who did not tell much about his closest people. He did not even speak of his cousins, which he still has alive in Finland and Sweden.

In return, Leino was loyal to his immediate circle. Even though he was an unmatched himself, he asked his friends in the shortage if he could help somehow.

– At one point, he had the money so tight that he collected bottles and cans from the trash. But if someone was begging on the street in New York, he always threw coins in a cardboard mug. He cared about people, and I never heard he was talking to anyone’s evil.

Leino died at home at leukemia. In the last few weeks, according to Sihvonen, he did not let him go other than a home assistant. He wanted people to leave him in memory of the days.

– However, Iria was the sparkling star model in Paris until the end of her life. I never saw her without makeup, not at home, where she always used high heels.