The artists of the Ateneum’s 2021 exhibitions include Outi Heiskanen, Eino Ruutsalo and Hannu Väisänen

Before the Outi Heiskanen exhibition, the museum’s third floor will be occupied by an exhibition of work by Ilya Repin, until 29 August 2021. The Ateneum will be closed until 31 March 2021 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. There will be a separate announcement regarding the opening date of the Ilya Repin exhibition to the public.

Outi Heiskanen
8 Oct 2021–9 Jan 2022 

The arts academician Outi Heiskanen (born 1937) is one of the most famous Finnish artists. Heiskanen’s retrospective exhibition will bring together different facets of her diverse and multidisciplinary art. The exhibition of more than 300 works will present prints, paintings, installations, films, and performance art. The exhibition is curated by Tuula Karjalainen, PhD, together with the chief curator at the Ateneum, Sointu Fritze.

The mythical world created by Outi Heiskanen is full of stories about the mysteries of being human and our relationship with nature. In her characters, the boundary between man and animal can be blurred when the focus is on our basic instincts and the cycle of life. Her works, created using various techniques, intertwine womanhood, motherhood, eroticism and death. The works are characterised by her undeniable virtuosity and a desire to experiment, which is sometimes even anarchistic in its flouting of the rules.

Community and close friendships have played a key role in Outi Heiskanen’s art since the 1970s. The legendary performances by the Record Singers and Bellini-akatemia (‘Bellini Academy’), which were formed around Heiskanen, paved the way for the emergence of performance art. One of the most memorable performances was Kluuvin ruhje (‘Kluuvi fracture), which was seen at the closing event of the Ateneum Art Museum before its renovation in 1984. Siirrettävä Tuonela (‘Movable Tuonela), which was created by Heiskanen and her artist friends in 1983, spread around the park of the Meilahti Art Museum, constituting one of the first exhibitions of environmental art in Finland.

Outi Heiskanen’s most important mentor, the graphic artist Pentti Kaskipuro (Mestari K; ‘Master K’), has said: “Outi is the yeast that makes the dough rise, whatever the context. Her artistic expression is completely untouchable: she relies on tradition, yet she is completely original and open-minded.”

The opening of the exhibition coincides with the publication of a biography of Outi Heiskanen written by Tuula Karjalainen (Siltala Publishing).

See the exhibition at Ateneum's website

Fokus Gallery: Hannu Väisänen and Schillmark Variations
13 Apr–8 Aug 2021

“When I stood there in front of you, Strawberry Girl, for the first time, I was wearing a soaking wet boys’ national costume, and the smell of the woollen waistcoat reminded me of rain-drenched sheep. It was the early sixties. I had agreed to go on a folk-dancing tour to Helsinki only because the horror of the performance would be rewarded by a visit to an art museum."

The exhibition will feature variations by the visual artist and author Hannu Väisänen (born 1951) on Nils Schillmark’s painting Strawberry Girl (1782). The work at the Ateneum made an indelible impression on the artist as a child. The model for the painting was a girl from a noble family, Ulrika Charlotta Armfelt (1771–1835). When creating the series of works, Väisänen studied the lives of both Schillmark and Armfelt.

In addition to paintings, the exhibition will feature 20 fragments of prose written by Väisänen. In these texts, Väisänen describes his feelings when looking at Schillmark’s works, as he pictures the lucky and unlucky turns in Armfelt’s life.

See the exhibition at Ateneum's website

Fokus Gallery: Eino Ruutsalo’s Experimental 1960s
14 Sept 2021–3 Apr 2022 

Visual artist and filmmaker Eino Ruutsalo (1921–2001) was one of Finland’s leading experimental artists in the 1960s. He often created his works in collaboration with musicians, poets and dancers.Ruutsalo’s film Kinetic Pictures (1962) won international praise and earned him the reputation of a pioneer in Finnish experimental cinema. This single-gallery exhibition celebrates the centenary of the artist’s birth.

Ruutsalo moved fluidly between different mediums and combined them freely.Most of his work from the 1960s consists of visual poetry, experimental short films, object assemblages, kinetic light works and documentary and feature films,but his extensive output also includes graphic art, paintings and sculptures. His free approach to different mediums of art and interplay between them made Ruutsalo a pioneer of Finnish contemporary art.

The exhibition is curated by researcher Marko Home and Ateneum exhibitions producer Katja Ikäläinen. Marko Home’s art-historical dissertation on Ruutsalo’s 1960s-era output will come to completion before the opening of the exhibition.

See the exhibition at Ateneum's website

 

Opening hours
Tue, Fri 10:00–18:00 | Wed, Thu 10:00–20:00 | Sat, Sun 10:00–17:00 | Mon closed

Admission fees in 2021
19 Mar–29 Aug Normal admission fee €19, concessions €17 (Repin exhibition)
30 Aug–31 Dec Normal admission fee €18, concessions €16
Under 18-year-olds free of charge

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