If you are visiting Helsinki, don’t miss out on this very special Tuulikki Pietilä exhibition at Ateneum.
Like Tove Jansson, her life partner Tuulikki Pietilä (1917-2009) was also an artist, and more precisely, one of the key Finnish graphic artists of the post-Second World War period. Pietilä has been one of the most influential people in Finnish graphic arts, and besides as an artist, she also worked as a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts.
In honour of Pietilä’s birth centenary, Ateneum Art Museum will open an exhibition presenting a collection of Pietilä’s works. The exhibition is open from 28 Feb – 16 Apr 2017. The Pietilä collection, bequeathed to the Ateneum in 2009, includes almost all the artist’s works. The exhibition will present an overview of the extensive body of work by the experimental and technically versatile artist.
Tuulikki Pietilä: Etsaaja (1945).
Finnish National Gallery/Ateneum Art Museum.
Photo: Finnish National Gallery/Ainur Nasretdin.
Tuulikki Pietilä: Tour de France (1951).
Finnish National Gallery/Ateneum Art Museum.
Photo: Finnish National Gallery/Nina Pätilä.
Tuulikki Pietilä: Metsä palaa – Incendie de forêt (1963).
Finnish National Gallery/Ateneum Art Museum.
Photo: Finnish National Gallery/Petri Virtanen.
Tove and Tuulikki met during art studies and formed a bond that would last their lifetime. From the mid-1950s onwards, they lived and worked openly together on numerous projects in literature, art, and life. Their work includes many ambitious projects, such as the Moominhouse and other 3D pieces that are seen at the Tampere Art Museum Moominvalley.
Tove, Tuulikki, and Pentti Eistola building the five-storey Moominhouse in the 1970s
At the press conference on 22 Sep, Ateneum also revealed their latest purchase, Tove Jansson’s self-portrait painted in 1942. Museum Director Susanna Petterson said that the painting will be exhibited in Ateneum until October 2nd, and then the painting will be touring in Europe together with the Tove Jansson exhibition, starting from Millesgården, Stockholm, Sweden.
In 2014, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Tove Jansson, over 300 000 people visited the Tove Jansson exhibition in Finland at the Art Museum Ateneum. In 2015 the touring exhibition in Japan delighted over 260 000 visitors in five museums.