John Savio
John Andreas Savio (1902 to 1938) was a Sámi visual artist from Bugøyfjord in Sør-Varanger. He worked in woodcut, linocut, drawing, watercolour and oil painting.
A personal view of people and landscape
Savio drew on Sámi everyday life, reindeer herding and landscape, as well as other environments encountered on his travels. These images are an artist's considered experiences, rather than neutral illustrations of an entire culture. MUNCH emphasises how his depictions challenged stereotypical and racist images of Sámi people. The museum places him within Nordic modernism and the background to later Sámi contemporary art.
Stays in Kristiania and travels in Norway and Europe broadened his subjects. In 1930 he held a solo exhibition in Tromsø.
Woodcut form and colour
In Savio's prints, black areas meet sharp white cuts or denser lines shaping terrain and movement. Kunst på Arbeidsplassen highlights his varied cutting and rhythm. Exhibitions, museum visits and books informed his studies. Some subjects were hand-coloured with watercolour; a coloured impression therefore needs a more precise description than simply a “colour print”.
Documented works and different impressions
The National Museum's Čiŋadan sápmelaš, catalogued under the Norwegian title Ursamen, is dated between 1928 and 1934. This impression is a hand-coloured woodcut on Japanese paper, 243 × 185 mm, recorded as unnumbered. The historical title is reproduced here as catalogue information.
Káfevuossi I, also called Kafferast I, is represented in the museum by a hand-coloured woodcut on thin wove paper, dated between 1922 and 1928. This impression is also unnumbered. Simle med kalv illustrates a different kind of information: the museum dates the block itself to approximately 1930 and records an edition of 100. This alone does not establish the printing year of every impression of the subject.
Identification, editions and provenance
An original woodcut is an impression from a cut printing block; a photographic or digital rendering of its image is a reproduction. Compare paper, printed area, dimensions, colouring and documented edition, rather than the subject alone. The museum information above concerns particular impressions and cannot automatically be transferred to another sheet.
A signature or absence of an edition number does not by itself establish who printed a sheet, when it was printed or whether it is authentic. If an impression is described as a later or posthumous printing, its publisher, printer and connection to the original block need documentation. Ownership history, old purchase receipts and reverse markings are relevant evidence. Water stains, fading, tears and adhesion to a backing should be examined before purchase or assessment.
Read more about woodcuts, modernism, artist signatures, provenance and ownership history.
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