The Ateneum exhibition The Modern Woman to travel to Japan

A woman could have a career as an artist in early 20th-century Finland

The Modern Woman will present seven early 20th-century Finnish artists from the Ateneum collection: Maria Wiik (1853–1928), Sigrid af Forselles (1860–1935), Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946), Ellen Thesleff (1869–1954), Sigrid Schauman (1877–1979), Hilda Flodin (1877–1958) and Elga Sesemann (1922–2007). The exhibition of more than 80 works will include paintings, sculptures, prints and sketchbooks.

Unlike its previous versions, the exhibition to be staged in Japan will also include works by Maria Wiik, Sigrid af Forselles and Hilda Flodin. Maria Wiik and Helene Schjerfbeck were friends and fellow artists through life. The sculptors af Forselles and Flodin were Auguste Rodin’s pupils, and pioneers in sculpture in Finland and the Nordic countries. Sigrid af Forselles even acted as Rodin’s assistant when he was working on The Burghers of Calais.

The exhibition will delve into the role of the modern woman in the midst of the social, political and cultural changes of the era. The featured artists had a pioneering role in Finnish art at the end of the 19th century and in the early decades of the 20th century. The artists in the exhibition were exceptionally cosmopolitan, travelling alone without a male companion, which was not customary at the time. Each of the artists continued to work until the end of their lives.

Finnish and Japanese art historians as curators of the exhibition

“Our cooperation with the National Museum of Western Art has been really rewarding. We believe that the exhibition will offer new perspectives on Finnish art and society. The exhibition also discusses how gender equality is pursued in the field of art”, says the director of the Ateneum Art Museum, Marja Sakari. 

”I’m very delighted to present the exhibition The Modern Woman as a part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of friendship between Japan and Finland. I think this exhibition highlighting how Finnish female artists lived and worked while facing the obstacles within social constraints will be very sympathetic to women in Japan today as well”, says the director general of the National Museum of Western Art, Akiko Mabuchi.

The exhibition curators are the chief curator Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff and the keeper of prints and drawings, Anu Utriainen, from the Ateneum Art Museum, and the curator of research and future planning, Azu Kubota, from the National Museum of Western Art.

The Modern Woman exhibition has previously been shown at Scandinavia House in New York, Millesgården in Stockholm, and the Oulu Museum of Art. In addition, the exhibition Urban Encounters, which is on display until 20 January 2019 at the Ateneum Art Museum, presents works by Helene Schjerfbeck, Ellen Thesleff, Sigrid Schauman and Elga Sesemann, who were also featured on the first tour of the exhibition.

In 2019, touring Ateneum exhibitions to be shown in Finland, the UK and Estonia

Presented at the Ateneum in the winter of 2017–2018, The von Wright Brothers exhibition travelled to the Kuopio Art Museum and then to the Tikanoja Art Museum in Vaasa, where it will be on display until 3 February 2019. From 23 February to 19 May 2019, The von Wright Brothers will be on show at the Tampere Art Museum. In addition, an exhibition of works by Helene Schjerfbeck will be presented at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from 20 July to 27 October 2019. The exhibition is the first comprehensive overview of Schjerfbeck’s work in the UK.

At the end of year, on 6 December 2019, the first major joint exhibition between the Ateneum and the Kumu art museum, Creating the Self: Emancipating Women in Estonian and Finnish Art, will be opened in Tallinn. This ground-breaking exhibition will present works by Finnish and Estonian women artists and will discuss the social changes that affect women’s opportunities to build careers for themselves as professional artists.

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