Gallery Visits

Tympeät Tytöt

During the Christmas holiday, I asked my friends in Finland if they would be interested in visiting a few art galleries with me if possible. One of my friends suggested we’d go see an exhibition of one of her favourite artists so we all agreed and visited the narrow lobby of Hotel Helka in Helsinki where the paintings were hung. The artist in question was a Finnish feminist comic artist called Riina Tanskanen. The exhibition was called Tympeät Tytöt, translated to Grumpy Girls.

Tympeät Tytöt was a multimedia art project using comics to delve into economic problems in our society. The collection addresses the harsh truths of gender, power and economic system using a girlish frame of reference. Behind the pictures combined with the art one can see philosophical theories as well as feminist theory and the most recent research into social sciences.

I really liked the exhibition, as well as the feminist library that was a part of it. The art itself is already really contemporary and fun to look at, but the messages behind each piece are even more interesting.

The National Museum of Finland

The next step was to visit the National Museum of Finland. Since Ateneum in Helsinki was closed due to renovation, I was certain that I would miss my chance to see the original Kalevala paintings by Akseli Gallen-Kallela. This would have been a huge loss considering how important the artworks were for my research. Thankfully the National Museum of Finland had just opened an exhibition about Akseli Gallen-Kallela and had even transported the original paintings from Ateneum for people to see. So one day at the end of December, me and my friends headed over to the museum to see the exhibition.

The museum was sectioned into two exhibitions, Akseli Gallen-Kallela and the history of Finland. Both sides were immensely interesting, so we ended up spending a total of four hours inside! I felt like every painting and item I came across could be useful for my research, so ended up taking photos of everything and even spent some little time life drawing a few items. Below is a collection of a portion of the items and paintings I came across in the museum. Each and every one of them is interesting in its own way. This blog post will serve as a collection of references I’ll be able to come back to anytime I want. After this visit and also combining the photo collection I compiled from the Museovirasto, I’m confident that I’ve got a good amount of reference in my hands for the design process to come.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) was known for his numerous Kalevala-themed works of art, along with his portrayals of folk life. Akseli lived during a period of transition, both in Finland and Europe. The predominantly agrarian society faced challenges due to urbanisation and industrialisation, while automobiles replaced horse-drawn carriages on the roads. The National Museum of Finland was constructed in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland.  

Akseli’s career spanned both Finnish and international spheres. He studied at the Drawing school of the Finnish Art Society and at the Central School of Applied Arts, and after submitting the painting Boy with a Crow to the Académie Julian in Paris in 1884, he was accepted. It piqued my curiosity: how could a 19-year-old artist who had never visited France make a painting that was stylistically reminiscent of Parisian realism? Later in life, Akseli would continue his studies in Berlin, Italy, and Britain.

Akseli made friends with a number of notable personalities in Finland and abroad. These friendships formed a strong network that helped him both in his professional and personal life. Akseli painted portraits of many of his friends, and they also posed for his other works. In the newspapers of his day, Akseli was considered a master and was sought out for education and employment. However, his status was not uncontested – both his position and artistic style were questioned by the new artist generation of the early 1900s. (The National Museum of Finland, 2022)

As soon as you entered the Gallen-Kallela exhibition, you are greeted with a bust portrait of the man himself, sculpted by Alpo Sailo (1877-1955). Since There was room to walk around the bust, I took the chance and took photos of each side for later use in my own sculpting. I also did a quick life drawing sketch before moving on to the exhibition following my friends. Later on, at home, I launched ZBrush and did a quick one-hour sculpting of the bust. I was quite surprised I managed to finish the sculpt in such a limited time. I didn’t go into too much detail but wanted to focus on big shapes which worked well for the quick task.

Kalevala paintings

As I entered the exhibition, I was met with tens of beautiful paintings, varying massively in size and level of detail. I already knew that some of Gallen-Kallela’s biggest Kalevala paintings were huge, but I was still in awe as I saw the big frames spanning from floor to ceiling. All of the paintings were painted with oil, some filled with so much detail it took a long time to look through the piece and some were left completely unfinished. It was fascinating to see how even his less detailed and unfinished works were still able to tell a story to the viewer.

I especially liked the way he used impasto and rough paint textures in his pieces, to convey textures with minimal effort. His multi-painting works were also very interesting to look at, being almost comic strips of a certain story. Also, the frames of the paintings were considered art pieces by themselves, as Gallen-Kallela took time to design them himself. I have to admit, I was at first a little confused by the Aino Triptych (1889), and the swastika design travelling along the frame. However, in the info card below the painting, it’s said that the swastika in the frame was an ancient symbol of luck and well-being used in many European and Asian cultures. A similar motif can also be seen in many folkish Karelian embroideries.

Frescos

The Grand Duchy of Finland had its own pavilion at the Paris 1900 Exposition, and Akseli was invited to design the ceiling frescoes for the pavilion. Stories from the Kalevala were chosen as the subject matter for the frescoes. After the Exposition, architect Eliel Saarinen asked Akseli to paint the same frescoes for the building of the National Museum of Finland. The proposal by Saarinen, Herman Geselius, and Armas Lindgren won the architectural contest for the National Museum building in 1902. The museum building was opened to the public in 1928 – only three years prior to Akseli’s death.

Akseli had become an artist whose works and style defined the way Finnishness and Finland’s past were portrayed. (The National Museum of Finland, 2022)

Nature paintings

Even though I really like the original Kalevala paintings, I liked even more of the landscape paintings Gallen-Kallela made during his years. All of the paintings below are how he saw Finland through his eyes. Rich in colour, texture, power and beauty. He used soft, round shapes and calm colours for these paintings. The reason I like the paintings so much is that I too, see Finland’s nature like this. To me, Finland’s nature means home and calm, safety. My favourite moment is the time just before sunrise when the mist settles over the summer lake and a distant loon sings. To me, that screams Finland more than anything and is a memory I come back to often. I like that I’m able to get a similar feeling just by looking at these paintings.

Finnish accessories and items

Along with the paintings, there were also a huge amount of items and accessories to look at. Most of these items are from the Finnish history side of the building. It’s funny how familiar all of the items felt, even though I didn’t sometimes even know what they were. All of the textures and patterns are sure to come in handy for my 3D visualisations.

Patterns

I also took pictures of the patterns I found in both the Akseli Gallen-Kallela and History of Finland exhibitions. I really liked the glass paintings that were on display. The delicate details of them were breathtaking to look at. There was also a long hallway full of mittens knitted from the designs from each part of Finland. We took turns trying to identify which part the mittens could have come from. The mittens from Lapland (middle low) were the easiest to recognise, as the colours reminded us of the Sámi people.

Portraits

There were also portraits next to all of the landscapes and massive Kalevala paintings. Some of the people in the portraits were important and wealthy, but I like that there was also a simple portrait of an unknown person weaving yarn with a spinning wheel from Siuntio, a stone’s throw from where I spent my childhood. With minimal information from the portrait, I could still easily imagine how the person’s life could have been.

There was also a running strip of portrait photos running from early 1900 to this day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find info on the photographers so I could only enjoy the film as it played on.

Sculptures

Last, but not least was a room full of sculptures. To me, these sculptures were also important to see as they gave me the possibility to study how a single-colour sculpture could be presented in an exhibition space. As soon as I entered the room it was clear to see that the sculptures were cleverly carved so that when lit from above with a strong light source, every detail could be seen so much better. This fascinating choice made so much sense, as even from afar you could still clearly see the highly contrasted shapes of the sculpture. This was definitely something I should test out myself, in case I wanted to keep my 3D-printed sculpture monochromatic.

I would also have to take into account the depth and size of the details, as those were used to almost re-carve the sculpture when. the light hit it. I really liked the faux fabric pattern on the sculpture of the lady and it gave me lots of ideas for future use.

Below are some life drawing I did whilst visiting the National Museum of Finland as well as a bust sketch I did before visiting for reference on how I wanted to follow sketches to look.

Overall, both of the visits were extremely eye-opening and helpful. I’m ever grateful, that the Akseli Gallen-Kallela exhibition just opened at the start of December after I had spent the autumn worrying how I’ll miss seeing the Kalevala paintings as Ateneum was closed. With ridiculous luck, Ateneum lent the paintings to the National Museum of Finland which in turn happened to open the exhibition just as I travelled back to Finland for the holidays. Something of it was definitely meant to be!

I’m glad I was able to go see the exhibition and also the history of Finland side of the building, as I learnt so many new things during our visit, not only about art but also about the history of my home country as well. It’s funny how you start to appreciate your roots only after you move out!