Ateneum’s 2020 exhibitions are Natalia Goncharova, Inspiration – Contemporary Art & Classics, and Magnus Enckell

Yinka Shonibare CBE: Medusa West (2015). James Cohan Gallery, New York. Photo: © Yinka Shonibare CBE. Courtesy James Cohan, New York. Medusa Rondanini, University of Helsinki. Photo: Timo Huvilinna, Helsinki University Museum.

HELSINKI--()--Ateneum Art Museum’s 2020 exhibition programme includes Russian avant-garde artist Natalia Goncharova from February to May. From June to September, Inspiration – Contemporary Art & Classics will open ways in which today’s most interesting contemporary artists draw inspiration from some of the best-known works of European art. The fall will introduce visitors to Finnish artist Magnus Enckell’s art in the first comprehensive display of the artist’s oeuvre.

Natalia Goncharova
27 Feb–17 May 2020

Natalia Goncharova (1881–1962) is known as a central figure and innovator in Russian avant-garde art. The exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of the artist’s work from the first four decades of the 20th century, including works that were inspired by folk art and religious icons. In addition to visual art, Goncharova designed costumes and sets for Sergei Diaghilev’s famous Ballets Russes and created designs for fashion houses in Moscow and Paris, was involved in avant-garde cinema, and provided illustrations for experimental poems.

The exhibition features more than one hundred works, including a large number of paintings, but also illustrations, costumes, sketches of set designs, and recordings of ballet performances. Almost all the works in the exhibition will be seen in Finland for the first time.

Before coming to the Ateneum, the exhibition is on display at Tate Modern in London and the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. The main curators of the exhibition are Natalia Sidlina and Matthew Gale of Tate Modern and Ateneum Art Museum’s chief curator, Timo Huusko.

Inspiration – Contemporary Art & Classics
18 Jun–20 Sept 2020

Ateneum Art Museum’s summer exhibition Inspiration presents art that draws inspiration from iconic masterpieces, created by today’s most interesting contemporary artists. Works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Rembrandt, for example, continue to inspire contemporary artists to this day. In the exhibition, the original works are referenced, for example, through replicas, prints, plaster casts and abundant archive materials.

Artists featured in the Inspiration exhibition include Jake and Dinos Chapman, Mat Collishaw, Mark Karasick, Joseph Kosuth, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz, Heikki Marila, Sara Masüger, Jarmo Mäkilä, Aurora Reinhard, Jenny Saville, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Sam Taylor-Johnson and Gavin Turk.

The photographic artist Ola Kolehmainen’s new series of works, MUSEVM, which he photographed for this exhibition at key museums in Europe, adds the presence of museums to the display.

Before coming to the Ateneum, the exhibition will be shown at the Swedish Nationalmuseum from 20 February to 17 May 2020. The key curatorial team consists of London-based art historian James Putnam, director general of Nationalmuseum in Sweden, Susanna Pettersson, Ateneum Art Museum’s director Marja Sakari and chief curator Sointu Fritze. Before opening at Ateneum, the exhibition will be shown at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm from 20 February to 17 May 2020.

Magnus Enckell
23 Oct 2020–24 Jan 2021

Finnish painter Magnus Enckell (1870–1925) is one of the key artists of the golden age of Finnish art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is especially known as a representative of Finnish symbolism. Enckell’s best known works include Boy with Skull (1893) and The Awakening (1894), which are part of the the Finnish National Gallery’s collection. Enckell’s oeuvre, however, is extensive, covering portraits, landscapes, fantasies, religious topics, still lifes, and studies of people. He also created numerous monumental paintings for public spaces.

The exhibition is curated by museum director Marja Sakari; director of collections management at the Finnish National Gallery, Riitta Ojanperä; and the chief curator of exhibitions at the Ateneum, Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff.

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Opening hours: Tue, Fri 10–18 | Wed, Thu 10–20 | Sat, Sun 10–17 | Mon closed
Admission fees: Normal admission fee €17 | Concessions €15 | Under 18-year-olds free of charge

The Ateneum Art Museum is part of the Finnish National Gallery, together with the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum. www.kansallisgalleria.fi

Contacts

Ateneum - Finnish National Gallery
More information:
Communications officer
Anna Kari
tel. +358 40 717 8185
anna.kari at ateneum.fi

Release Summary

Ateneum Art Museum’s 2020 exhibitions include Natalia Goncharova, Inspiration – Contemporary Art & Classics, and Magnus Enckell.

Contacts

Ateneum - Finnish National Gallery
More information:
Communications officer
Anna Kari
tel. +358 40 717 8185
anna.kari at ateneum.fi