Tuulikki Pietilä donated her entire body of work to the Ateneum – an exhibition of the graphic artist to open in February

Tuulikki Pietilä (1917–2009) is one of the key Finnish graphic artists of the post-war period. Opening on Kalevala Day, the exhibition will fill three halls at the Ateneum, presenting an overview of the artist's work, in honour of the centenary of her birth. The Pietilä collection, bequeathed to the Ateneum, includes almost all the artist's works. Pietilä and Tove Jansson lived and worked together from the mid-1950s onwards. Concurrently with Pietilä's exhibition, the third floor of the Ateneum will feature an exhibition entitled Light Changes Everything – The Tuomo Seppo collection. Indeed, the first work that Tuomo Seppo acquired for his collection was a print by Tuulikki Pietilä.

Intellectual inquisitiveness and a willingness to experiment an integral part of Pietilä's personality as an artist

The exhibition will present an overview of the extensive body of work by the experimental and technically versatile artist. A total of about 170 works, dating from 1933 to 1985, will be on display. Tuulikki Pietilä's exceptionally extensive body of work comprises more than 1,400 works. The works reflect the various life stages of the artist and her unceasing interest in various printmaking techniques. Many of these printmaking methods require skill, patience, and plenty of experimenting. The exhibition will also illustrate the various stages in making prints.

The exhibition will focus, in particular, on works from Pietilä's informalist period. In addition to non-representational subjects, Tuulikki Pietilä and Tove Jansson's common interests feature in the works: the couple’s travels around the world, the summers they spent on Klovharu island in Pellinki, and their cat, Psipsina. Pietilä and Jansson, who also had their work in common, had separate studios in the same building in the Ullanlinna district in Helsinki.

The exhibition team includes the curator Anu Utriainen, the special researcher Erkki Anttonen, and, as an expert, the Ateneum's long-term chief curator Heikki Malme, who has made an inventory of all the works in the donated collection. The work has been made easier by the ever-methodical Pietilä documenting every print she made, starting in the 1930s.

A mistress of multi-colour prints explored a variety of styles in her work

A technically versatile artist, Pietilä incorporated a variety of styles in her work, from realism to cubism and abstract art, mainly constructivism and informalism. Pietilä created her first non-figurative, or non-representational, works as early as 1948. She took the stylisation and abstraction of her subjects further and, during in the 1950s, moved naturally towards constructivist expression. In the 1960s, Pietilä moved towards free-form informalist expression. She also began experimenting with various printmaking techniques, including combining intaglio prints with woodcuts, and lithographs and serigraphs. 

Tuulikki Pietilä became interested in the use of colour as a student in Paris in 1953, which is when she started to create multi-colour prints on a regular basis. At first, she made 2-6-colour lithographs, and she then moved into creating colour woodcuts and serigraphs, in which she used up to 12 different colours. In the 1960s, she also started to favour more colours in intaglio prints.

Opening hours
Tue, Fri 10am–6pm | Wed, Thu 10am–8pm | Sat, Sun 10am–5pm | Mon closed

Admission
Adults €15 | Concessions €13 | Under 18s free admission | with S-Etukortti card €14

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