Henrik Tikkanen

He was born and lived much of his life in Helsinki, and died of leukemia in Espoo. He was married to the Finnish writer Märta Tikkanen.

Henrik Tikkanen studied at Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu. The recorded working language is Swedish, Finnish and Finland Swedish. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are autobiography and satire. Places of work recorded in the authority are Helsinki. Work by Henrik Tikkanen is recorded in the collections of Finnish National Gallery. Distinctions recorded are Eino Leino Prize.

He was the son of architect Toivo Robert Tikkanen and Kylliki Ingeborg Vitali, great-grandson of Paavo Tikkanen and grandson of Johan Jakob Tikkanen. Tikkanen was married to Vaike Lia Alla Etrock from 1949 to 1962 and to Märta Eleonora Cavonius from 1963. Tikkanen had no formal artistic training. As a teenager he contributed illustrations to weekly magazines and children's books, and drew the series "Konrad" which was published in Svenska Pressen. After graduating from Helsingin suomalainen yhteiskoulu (Helsinki Finnish Co-educational School) in 1943, he pursued liberal arts studies and received some guidance in graphic techniques from some active graphic artists. From 1947 to 1967, Tikkanen was a journalist, columnist and cartoonist for Hufvudstadsbladet and from 1967 he was artistic director for the Finnish-language daily Helsingin Sanomat and from 1977 for Dagens Nyheter. He served on the board of the Association of Swedish-speaking Writers in Finland from 1972 to 1976. Tikkanen was the recipient of several awards for his work, including the Längman Prize in 1970, the Eino Leino Prize in 1975, the State Prize for Literature in 1976 and 1983, and prizes from the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland in 1973, 1976, and 1981. Tikkanen's cityscapes of Helsinki, in which he depicted the city's characteristics in simple lines, are particularly well-known. As a draftsman, he worked mainly in ink and produced a series of black-and-white drawings as a quick draftsman for various restaurants and companies in Finland. He participated in a large number of exhibitions in Finland, Denmark and Sweden. Tikkanen is represented at the Gothenburg Museum of Art and Svenska Klubben in Ekenäs, among others. Tikkanen is also known for his writing. He wrote a series of autobiographical and expository books, including Brändövägen 8, in which he came to terms with his Finnish-Swedish bourgeois background. These books were one of the causes of the Tikkanen-Kihlman debate, which was partly about the negative image of the Finnish-Swedish upper class given by the two authors' self-confessions. As a book author, he published the book Kär i Stockholm in 1955, which he illustrated with types of people, street pictures, restaurant life and architecture from post-war Stockholm.

Source: * * * * *

• Herdman, John (1980), review of Snob's Island in Cencrastus No. 4, Winter 1981–82, p. 46,