Vladimir
Hannesovich Lukkonen

born in 1959 • artist
Born on May 19, 1959 in Karelia. The main direction of creative activity is the disclosure of the national theme in the art of creating illustrations for children based on historical material, national traditions and rich cultural heritage of the Karelian people.
The artist’s creative credo - from national to international - is reflected in numerous works and books. Designed and illustrated more than 70 books. The participant of many international and domestic exhibitions, festivals, congresses. For more than 30 years he worked in the publishing of national literature.
In collaboration with writers V. Danilov, T. Vikstrom, V. Malmi, editors of the Finnish editions R.-L. Pellja, N. Rugoeva, M. Hutti, with art editors of the publishing house “Karelia” L. Dektyarev and Irina Kart, he gained invaluable experience in understanding child psychology in the context of educating and perceiving children of national subjects by means of visual arts and children's book illustration.
The theme of “Kalevala” in the work of V. Lukkonen is central. His attempts to illustrate Kalevala in the 1980s and 1990s were expressed in a series of comics published in the children's magazine Kipinya in 1992. It was a shortened version of the epos, the idea of which was supported by Jaakko Rugoev, and the translation into Finnish and the editors was made by Terttu Vikström.
It took a lot of time, thinking, searching in 1998 to start working on sketches of the Kalevala Cycle series of illustrations, which was included in the visual series of the children's poem Hello, Kalevala! And the epic poem Kullervo, Created in 2008–2009 based on the “Kalevala” by A. Mishin (libretto) and E. Shorokhov (music).
“I did not set myself the task of illustrating Kalevala quickly and for publishing purposes. The epos for me was and remains not just a beautiful legend, but a kind of promise, the voice of my ancestors from time immemorial. My genetic memory. Therefore, I am looking for a deeper meaning here, the encrypted code of my people, so to speak. ”
From 1985 to 2007, V. Lukkonen worked closely with the children's magazine Kipinya, creating for him a huge number of illustrations and comic books according to his own scripts. Having become its art editor in 2002, he completely changed the concept of the magazine, taking into account its specifics aimed at children's perception. Until now, the magazine is published almost unchanged, created then.
At the end of the 90s - the beginning of zero years V.Lukkonen as a curator of the Union of Finnish ex libristers, as a curator, organized a single exhibition of ex libris together with Finnish artists, trying to revive this genre of small graphics in Karelia.
Having created his own comic book magazine “Rex” in 2009, V. Lukkonen hoped to establish a dialogue with a young reader who had left the literature in the virtual world. At least with such a "frivolous" presentation of literary material, to put at least some bridges. But his project did not receive support. It was in this magazine that he published the story of Kullervo, which was highly appreciated by Armas and Olga Mishin, and Viola Malmi expressed her hope to see this story as a separate book. In 2012, this book was published in the editorship of A.I. Mishin and translated into Karelian by O.F. Mishina.

In recent years, V. Lukkonen often turns to easel graphics and painting.
Member of the CX since 2011. Lives and works in the village of Hautavaara, Suojärvi District of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
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