Laila Karttunen: Life’s Colourful Tapestry
Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Hämeenlinna
- 22.11.2024–4.5.2025
Laila Karttunen: Life's Colourful Tapestry offers a complete survey of Karttunen’s career, comprising everything from sketches to rya rugs, oil paintings and textile art works.
Laila Karttunen (1895–1981) counts among the pioneers of Finnish textile art. As an artist, she had a strong interest in time, exploring the past and experimenting with the new. This exhibition will offer a complete survey of Karttunen’s career, comprising everything from sketches to rya rugs, oil paintings and textile art works.
The artist spent many decades in Hämeenlinna, working as teacher, designer and later artistic director of the Wetterhoff Craft School. Hämeenlinna Art Museum’s collection today encompasses a bequest of some 2,000 of her sketches, oil paintings and textile artworks.
A wide-ranging career saw Laila Karttunen pursue numerous creative interests, including research into traditional textiles and the latest developments in art. Karttunen, whose work was recognised with a Milan Triennial gold medal, was a leading light in the Finnish applied arts scene. She was able to effortlessly incorporate international influences, such as cubism and op art into her own artistic practice. In her deft hands, tapestries became a form of contemporary art and were firmly established as part of Finland’s arts heritage. “Yarn is my paint,” Laila Karttunen is known to have said of her art.
2025 marks the 130th anniversary of this remarkable artist’s birth.
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Museum contact details
Hämeenlinna Art Museum
Viipurintie 2, 13200 Hämeenlinna
(03) 621 3017, (03) 621 2669
Yhteydet julkisilla
Näytä reitti museolle Matkahuollon reittioppaassa
Katso reitti Matkahuollon reittioppaassa
Päämäärä:
Hämeenlinna Art Museum, Viipurintie 2, 13200 Hämeenlinna
Lähtöpiste:
Admission fees
12/10/0 €
Payment methods
Pankkikortti, Visa, Smartumin kulttuuriseteli
Opening hours
Mon | Closed |
Tue | 11:00-18:00 |
Wed | 11:00-18:00 |
Thu | 11:00-18:00 |
Fri | 11:00-17:00 |
Sat | 11:00-17:00 |
Sun | 11:00-17:00 |
Special opening hours: www.hameenlinnantaidemuseo.fi