The exhibition opened on Friday 12 June at the Hämeenlinna Art Museum.
Oh Finland, Finland at Hämeenlinna Art Museum invites us to explore these very sights, charting the development of the Finnish landscape tradition from the mid-1850s until the beginning of the 20th century and highlighting its characteristic practices and stylistic aims. The works on display will transport visitors back to a time when Finland’s visual and national identity were both still taking shape.
The exhibition is a chance to see how Finnish artists have viewed their native country and captured it on canvas for posterity. It encompasses rural idylls and atmospherically potent vistas, realism and naturalism as well as works that draw on national Romanticism and symbolism for their impact. The paintings on display reflect not just uniquely Finnish preoccupations but also more international genres and trends.
The Finnish Fine Arts Foundations
The works on display have been sourced from the Finnish Fine Arts Foundation’s collections. The aim of the association is to promote and familiarise the public with Finnish and international art at home and abroad, to support art as a leisure pursuit, and to further art historical research.
The Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Fortum Art Foundation, Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation, OP Art Foundation, Art Foundation Merita, UPM-Kymmene Cultural Foundation and Åbo Akademi University Foundation have borrowed their works for the exhibition. Founded in 2006, the association has 9 members, with the most recent, joining the Pro Artibus Foundation in 2019. The association’s collections comprise a total of thousands of works from the 16th century to the present day.
The exhibition is on display 12.6-20.9.2020 in the Engel building of Hämeenlinna Art Museum.