Press conference on Wed 21 October at 11:00: Magnus Enckell

The event will be opened by the director of the Ateneum Art Museum, Marja Sakari. The exhibition will be presented by its curators Marja Sakari; the director of collections management at the Finnish National Gallery, Riitta Ojanperä; and the chief curator of exhibitions at the Ateneum, Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff.

The event will be in Finnish.

We take care of the safety of the visitors and pay attention to hygiene at all our events. A maximum of 60 people can attend the event. We require using a face mask.

Due to the restricted attendance, please register for the event by Monday 19 October at: pressconference@ateneum.fi. We ask for a binding registration.

Read our instructions for a safe museum visit

Magnus Enckell
23 October 2020 – 14 February 2021

The painter Magnus Enckell (1870–1925) is known especially as a representative of Finnish symbolism. The exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of the work of one of the most significant names of the golden age of Finnish art, and presents him as a multifaceted cultural influencer.

Magnus Enckell is one of the key artists of the golden age of Finnish art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and yet only some of his work is known. The Ateneum exhibition offers a diverse overview of Enckell’s entire oeuvre from five different decades.

The exhibition and the book to be published in conjunction with it shed light on the artist’s many facets. Enckell, on the one hand, promoted radical reforms in art, but, on the other, relied on the traditions of culture and education. He was a dreamer, but also an international man of the world, a curator of exhibitions, the chairman of the Artists’ Association of Finland, and a creator of monumental works. Music, theatre, and literature were all important to this diversely educated artist.

The exhibition presents many previously unknown works, sketchbooks, pieces from Enckell’s extensive body of drawings, and photographs from his own archive. The exhibition presents Enckell’s work, from the early pieces he created when studying at a drawing school to the mythological works of the 1920s.

Please note! On 16 July 2020, we announced that we would be celebrating Magnus Enckell’s birthday by being open on Monday 9 November 2020. Instead of this, we will celebrate Enckell’s 150th birthday on Saturday 14 November.

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