The Ateneum’s 2024 exhibitions seek the essence and explore the big questions of life and death

In 2024, two temporary exhibitions will be presented on the third floor of the Ateneum Art Museum: the all-Finnish Eero Järnefelt and the international Gothic Modern.

In addition to these, the Ateneum’s collection exhibition A Question of Time, which opened in April 2023 and is continually updated, will be on display on the first and second floors of the museum throughout the year. In the spring of 2024, various changes will be made to the exhibition A Question of Time. For example, the paper-based works, which are shown particularly in the exhibition galleries featuring works under the theme of Modern Life, will be replaced during February. Many of the works under the theme of Images of a People will also be replaced in the spring, as some of the collection exhibition works by Akseli Gallen-Kallela will travel to the Belvedere art museum in Vienna, and some of the works in the Ateneum’s Albert Edelfelt exhibition (on display from 5 May to 17 September 2023) will be included in the collection exhibition.

Eero Järnefelt
5 Apr–25 Aug 2024

This exhibition presents the extensive oeuvre of Eero Järnefelt (1863–1937), who grew up in a cultured, cosmopolitan family, and it explores the artist’s significance for Finnish art and Finnishness. Järnefelt, who sought to portray the true, the typical and the essential, is known particularly for his depictions of landscapes, clouds and nature, paintings of the area around Koli, and portraits of prominent figures of his time. When Finland gained its independence, Järnefelt more or less became the official portrait painter of Finland.

All of the above subjects are widely represented in the Ateneum exhibition, as are the Järnefelt family and their close relatives, who had a huge influence on the art and culture of Finland at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Järnefelt’s brothers – the critic Kasper, the writer Arvid, and the musician Armas – and his sister Aino, who later became Jean Sibelius’s wife, are remembered not only for their contributions to visual arts, literature and music, but also as part of a wider network of active cultural figures. His father, Alexander Järnefelt, made the Fennomans’ battle for the Finnish language his life’s work, and his mother, Elisabeth Järnefelt, is especially remembered for her literary salon, the most famous participant of which was the writer Juhani Aho.

Most of the works in the exhibition come from the collection of the Finnish National Gallery, but there is also an exceptionally large number of works on loan from private collections. The curator of the exhibition is the chief curator of collections at the Ateneum, Timo Huusko.

Link to the exhibition webpage

Gothic Modern 
4 Oct 2024–26 Jan 2025

This international exhibition presents modern art from the 19th and 20th centuries that is inspired by European medieval and Northern Renaissance art. The themes of the diverse exhibition include death and rituals, but also sexuality and enlightenment.

A long research project has, for the first time, explored how artists of the modern era became interested in medieval art. The exhibition rewrites the history of modern art. Featured artists include Arnold Böcklin, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Albrecht Dürer, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Theodor Kittelsen, Käthe Kollwitz, Edvard Munch, Hugo Simberg, Helene Schjerfbeck and Marianne Stokes. In addition to paintings and prints, the exhibition includes objects, sculptures and furniture.

The partners of the international exhibition are the National Museum of Art in Oslo and the Albertina museum in Vienna, which are the two venues where the exhibition will be shown after its run at the Ateneum. The exhibition is curated by the chief curator of exhibitions at the Ateneum, Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff (who will be director of the Ateneum from 1 January 2024), Vibeke Waallann Hansen from the National Museum of Art, and the director of the Berlin´s Alte Nationalgalerie, Ralph Gleis. A guest curator for the exhibition is Professor Juliet Simpson from Coventry University.

Link to the exhibition webpage

In addition to the collection exhibition and the two temporary exhibitions, the Ateneum’s Fokus Gallery will host two exhibitions in 2024: Impivaara and Lars-Gunnar Nordström.

Fokus Gallery: IC-98 and Impivaara
27 Feb 2024–28 Apr 2024

Impivaara is a new short film by the IC-98 artist group, formed by Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpää. It brings Aleksis Kivi’s classic novel Seitsemän veljestä (The Seven Brothers; 1870) up to date, linking it to the discussion on the environmental crisis of the 2020s, the energetic basis of our culture, and the coexistence of species. The film’s scenic sequences, depicting vast wilds and wide open skies, refer to national visual-art narratives and thus also to the iconic landscape works in the collections of the Finnish National Gallery.

Link to the exhibition webpage

Fokus Gallery: Lars-Gunnar Nordström
27.8.2024 – 24.11.2024

In 2024, 100 years will have passed since the birth of Lars-Gunnar “Nubben” Nordström, a pioneer and trailblazer in Finnish concrete art. The Ateneum will celebrate Nordström by staging a small-scale exhibition in the Fokus Gallery, consisting of works from the Finnish National Gallery collection. The exhibition will focus on Nubben’s early work; works from the 1940s and 1950s; and the development of his full-on abstract expression. The exhibits also include photographs and archive materials that shed light on the reception of early concrete art in Finland, the zeitgeist in that era, and the great importance of an international outlook for Nordström and like-minded artists.

Link to the exhibition webpage

Visitors can dig deeper into the Eero Järnefelt and Gothic Modern exhibitions by attending an exhibition intro, where a guide introduces the themes and works of the exhibition with the help of a rich visual presentation. The sale of Eero Järnefelt exhibition intros for groups has already begun. To book an intro, click the booking calendar.

The exhibition intros for Gothic Modern will go on sale in spring 2024.

The exhibition Colour & Light – The Legacy of Impressionism, which opened in October 2023, will remain available for viewing on the third floor of the Ateneum until 25 February 2024.

The Ateneum opening hours in 2024: Tue–Fri 10:00–20:00 | Sat, Sun 10:00–17:00 | Mon closed

Tickets to the Ateneum in 2024: Standard ticket at the ticket office €22 | Standard ticket online €20 | Concessions €12 | Under 18-year-olds free of charge