Sunshine and Joy of Life – Colourist Art in the 1910s

For Finnish art, the 1910s was a decade of new forms of expression and the liberation of colour. The modernist trends emanating from world metropolises, the pulsating rhythm of urban life and the emphasis on the individual’s inner experience shaped an entire artist generation’s conceptions of art.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865–1931) wrote to his friend Johannes Öhquist (1861–1949) in Paris in spring 1909 that his inner self had bloomed and found expression in forms and especially in colours. He found new inspiration for his work in the city’s modernist scene, and the results were evident in his vibrant artworks, which blended realism with contemporary colourist painting. Quickly sketched urban scenes as well as re-interpretations of Kalevala themes conveyed a new approach in his painting which reached its peak in British East Africa in 1909–1910.

The exhibition also features 1910s landscapes and portraits venturing into the realm of expressive inner world by Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s contemporaries Ellen Thesleff (1869–1954), Pekka Halonen (1865–1933), Tyko Sallinen (1879–1955), Magnus Enckell (1870–1925), Jalmari Ruokokoski (1886–1936), Ester Helenius (1875–1955) and Yrjö Ollila (1887–1932).