Saturday September 27 was a beautiful sunny day with a high of 16C. We went over to the Market Hall to pick up some provisions. It was a busy late morning and all the stalls were open. Everything is very fresh and beautifully displayed. We bought some more herring, gravlax and some vegetables we needed.
After we dropped our purchases off in the apartment, we headed to the Ateneum museum. The Neo-Renaissance building was designed by the architect Theodor Höijer and opened in 1888. It is located opposite Rautatientori Square, the Central Railway Station and the Finnish Theatre. At the top of the building is Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, warfare and handicraft. Ateneum has a collection of nearly 30,000 works of art from 18th century rococo to 20th century modernism. As part of the National Gallery of Finland, the Ateneum has collected Finnish art over the centuries.
We came to see the temporary exhibit entitled:
Gallen-Kallela, Klimt and Wien, which had just opened on September 26.
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| Ateneum |
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| Central Railway Station across the Square |
The opening room dealt with the history of the Vienna Secession. In the early part of the 20th century, Vienna attracted reform-minded artists from all over Europe who sought to abandon old artistic ideals, and create a new, freer way of life. The Vienna Secession began activities in 1897, let by Gustav Klimt. "Secession" means separation from something. The key concept of the Secession was the equality of all art forms, with visual arts, architecture, crafts, design and fashion joining to reflect the modern world.
The exhibit presented the works of Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) and his role in the Secession as part of Vienna's international circle of artists.
It is the first major exhibition of the Secession presented in the Nordic countries and was organized in collaboration with the Belvedere museum in Vienna.
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| The early members of the Vienna Secession |
The chronology noted that Gallen-Kallela exhibited several works at the Secession's 1901 Nordic Exhibition along with other Finnish artists. The Secessionist journal
Ver Sacrum published an extensive article on Gallen-Kallela's art. He also had numerous works at the 1904 Vienna Secession exhibit.
There were two wonderful paintings of Vienna in 1900 by Maximilian Lenz (1860-1948).
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| Sirk Corner (Ringstrasse), 1900 |
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| Ride in the Prater, 1900 |
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| Gustave Klimt (1862-1918), Josef Lewinsky as Carlos in Calvino, 1895 |
There were a number of paintings by Gallen-Kallela that reminded us of the Group of Seven, especially the pine trees and snowy scenes.
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| Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Spring, 1900 |
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| Gallen-Kallela, The Great Black Woodpecker, 1893 |
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| Karl Hofer, The Painter Bronica Koller, c.1921-1922 |
There was a wonderful portrait of Edvard Munch(1863-1944) painted by Gallen-Kallela. They had met and had a joint exhibition in Berlin in 1895. Munch's works had a significant impact on the German expressionists. He participated in several Secessionst exhibitions in Germany and Austria and like Gallen-Kallela, showed numerous works at the Vienna Secession exhibits of 1901 and 1904.
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| Portrait of Edvard Munch, 1895 |
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Egon Schiele, Eduard Kosmack, 1910. Kosmack (1880-1947) was a publisher.
Schiele became acquainted with Klimt in 1907. |
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| Edvard Munch, Portrait of Gustaf Schindler, 1908 |
Gallen-Kallela created the only known painted portrait of the composer and conductor Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). Mahler shared the Secession's aim of renewing all forms of arts. Gallen-Kallela and Mahler became friends in Vienna in 1904.
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| Gallen-Kallala, Portrait of the Composer Gustav Mahler, 1907 |
The watercolour (below) is one of Gallen-Kallela's best known self-portraits. The work included references to frescos he studied in Italy in 1894 and 1898. The fresco technique became an important means of expression for Gallen-Kallela. The artist's monumental frescos included paintings for the dome of the Finnish pavilion at the 1900 Paris Exposition and murals in the Jusélius Mausoleum in Port, painted in 1903.
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| Self-Portrait in Fresco, 1894 |
Max Kurzweil (1867-1916) was one of the founders of the Vienna Secession and editors of Ver Sacrum magazine. He painted a beautiful portrait of Therese Bloch-Bauer (1874-1961), the sister of Adele Bloch-Bauer, Klimt's famous model known as 'the woman in gold'. The Bloch-Bauer's home was an important gathering place for Vienna's cultural circle. Therese Bloch-Bauer fled the Nazi occupation to Canada, but many other family members perished in the Holocaust.
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| Max Kurzweil, Portrait of Therese Bloch-Bauer, c. 1907 |
There were a number of paintings by Bronica Koller-Pinell (1863-1934). She was a painter of Jewish origin and close friend of Klimt. Women could not be official members of the Secession, but she did participate in exhibitions of the Kunstschau group founded by Klimt. Her home became a popular art salon for Secession artists.
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| Bronica Koller-Pinell, Self-Portrait, c. 1905 |
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| Mary Gallen-Kallela's dress (two part), 1908 |
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| Gallen-Kallela, The Artist's Mother, 1896 |
Koloman Moser was a painter, graphic artist and designer. He was one of the founding members of the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte, an artists' workshop focussed on household objects and modern design. He was known for his total works of art (Gesamtkunstwerk in German), which combined several elements of art into a coherent whole. The total work of art was a central aim of the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte.
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| Koloman Moser (1868-1918), Portrait of a Woman in Profile, 1913 |
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| Koloman Moser, Self-Portrait, 1915 |
There was a wall dedicated to high-quality prints of major works of Klimt from a portfolio entitled:
Das Werk von Gustav Klimt, 1918.
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| The Kiss |
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| Sunflower |
There was a series of works with landscape scenes. Landscape painting was one of the artistic genres valued by the Secessionsts. A landscape was notably depicted as an actual, realistic view, but also as an atmosphere or state of mind. Gallen-Kallela preferred to spend his summers in Finland, painting landscapes in the lake districts, applying the ideas and influences he had adopted from international contemporary art.
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| Moser, Wolfhangsee with High Horizon, c. 1913 |
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| Gallen-Kallela, Lake Keitele, 1904 |
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| Gallen-Kallela, Lake View, 1901 |
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| Gallen-Kallela, Light and Shades, 1908 |
Monumental works were very important to the Secessionists, who sought to create holistic art experiences.
Gallen-Kallela painted four scenes from the national epic the Kalevala on the 1900 Paris Exposition Finnish pavilion's domed ceiling. The paintings were dismantled after the exposition, but the sketches were preserved in the Finnish National Gallery collection. In 1928, Gallen-Kallela painted stylized versions of the frescoes on the ceiling of the entrance hall of the National Museum of Finland.
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Gallen-Kallela, Heathendom and Christendom,
Sketch for the Cupola Frescoes of the Finnish Pavilion in Paris, 1900. |
There was a room with posters from the various Secession exhibits over the years.
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| Egon Schiele, 1918 |
Klimt's
Beethoven Frieze: The Longing for Happiness (after Richard Wagner's Interpretation of the Ninth Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven) was reconstructed by the Belvedere Museum for this exhibition.
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| Reproduction of Klimt's Beethoven Frieze that is found in the Vienna Secession Building. |
The next large room had a number of works by the Wiener Werkstätte as well as clothes by Emile Flöge and others.
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| Wiener Werstätte's logo designed by Koloman Moser, 1903 |
Emile Flöge and her sisters Pauline and Helene Flöge opened a successful fashion boutique in Vienna in 1904. The Schwestern Flôge clothing shop was known for the geometric shapes in its interior designed by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser. There were a number of dresses designed by Flöge as well as other members of the Secession on display.
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| Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980), Skirt for the artist's model Lilith Lang, 1907-1908 |
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| Cabaret Fledermaus, interior designed by Josef Hoffmann, executed by Wiener Werkstätte, c. 1910 |
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| Klimt, Friends I (The Sisters), 1907 |
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| Beautiful Flöge dresses |
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| Emile Flöge in a "reform dress" in the garden of Villa Paulick in Seewalchen am Attersee, 1913 |
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| Koloman Moser, Signboard for the Schwestern Flöge fashion salon, 1904 |
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| Koloman Moser, Reform Dress, c. 1905 |
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Broncia Koller-Pinell, The Piano Player, undated
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| Broncia Koller-Pinell, The Artist's Mother, 1907 |
One of the last pictures in the exhibit was by Gustav Klimt entitled
Amalie Zuckerkandl, 1917/1918.
Amalie Zuckerkandl (1869-1942) was a member of a Viennese cultural family. It was one of Klimt's last works. It shows his method of sketching on canvas with pencil and completing it with paint. He finished the face before the outbreak of WWI interupted the work. He returned to it later, but did not manage to complete it before his death in 1918. Zuckerkandl died at the Belžec Nazi extermination camp in Poland in 1942.
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| Amalie Zuckerkandl, 1917/1918 |
After the exhibit, we peaked in at the lovely Museum café with a great view of the Railway Station and Finnish Theatre.
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| Café with a view |
The exhibit was very comprehensive and well worth the visit. While we have visited the Belvedere Museum and the Secession building in Vienna, there were a number of paintings and works that we had never seen. We also learned a lot about the Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela and how he and other Nordic artists fit in with the Secessionists.
We decided to wander a bit and then go for a coffee.
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| Gargoyles |
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| Lots of architectural details on the buildings |
We passed the Canadian Embassy which is located in a gorgeous building just across from the Esplanadi Park in downtown Helsinki.
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| Oh Canada! |
We decided to get a coffee at Robert's Coffee, which we had already checked out. It is the wonderful Jugendstil (art nouveau) café located in a former bank.
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| Inside the café with the lovely vaulted ceilings |
We sat outside with our coffee and cardamom bun. The café faces the lovely Esplanadi Park.
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| "When in doubt, drink coffee and look busy"-- Robert's Coffee |
We headed back to the apartment.
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| Another example of the street signage- Finnish on top and Swedish below. A bit tricky when you're looking for a particular address. |
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| We passed this statue en route- couldn't find a plaque |
As we were getting into the elevator in our building, a man was getting out in his bathrobe, carrying a towel. We asked if there was a sauna in the building and he said 'yes'. Our host hadn't mentioned this and we didn't know if we needed a different key. The man kindly asked if we wanted to accompany him to the sauna and he would show us where it was located. We took a pass as we were hungry and weren't quite ready to change quickly and go for a sauna.
We heated up the salmon soup which the owner of one of the fish stores in the market had specially made for us, without any cream. It was delicious- big chunks of salmon, potatoes, onions, dill, bay leaves, and large black peppercorns. We had two bowls each along with some delicious pumpernickel bread he had given us, followed by a green salad that Allan made.
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Soup, glorious soup
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We had another wonderful day exploring Helsinki. We stayed up to listen to the Blue Jays game--- big win- after midnight here. Just in time for the start of Allan's birthday celebration (September 28), though we figured out that he was still a year younger in Toronto time.
Wonderful report on the exhibit! We hope you were able to enjoy Sunday’s exciting Blue Jays triumph.
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