Hot Art

Column by Elise Gegauff

The Akseli Gallen-Kallela Museum


I was taking a walk around my new neighbourhood one day, when I came to a familiar place. I was delighted to discover that the beautiful Akseli Gallen-Kallela Museum was just around the corner.

The interesting thing about this museum is that it was built by Akseli Gallen-Kallela himself as a home and atelier in 1911-1913. The place is called Tarvaspää, just by the border of Espoo and Helsinki. It was opened to the public as the Akseli Gallen-Kallela Museum in 1961.

It’s set in a beautiful location on a bluff by the sea, truly an inspirational place for an artist. In the big granden there’s a café with a summer terasse where you can enjoy something to drink and eat after a nice visit in the museum. Nearby there is also a sauna that is still operational.
From the 15th of May to the 31st of August the museum is open from 10AM to 18PM every day. The price is 8 Euros for adults, 4 Euros for students and groups of more than 20 people pay only 6 Euros.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela

For those who don’t know who Gallen-Kallela was, I would like to tell you very shortly about him.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) started as a realist painter and is best known to the world as the Finnish painter with the illustrations of Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. Therefore he is considered very important to the Finnish national identity.

He was born Axél Waldemar Gallén in Pori, Finland. When he was 11 he was sent to Grammar School because his father didn’t want him to become a painter. However when his father died, he started attending drawing classes at the Finnish Art Society. In 1884 he moved to Paris to study at Academie Julian. He made many of his most beautiful and known pieces there and also got to know other scandinavian artists such as the Norwegian Adam Dørnberger and the Swedish writer August Strindberg. He also became close friends with Albert Edelfeldt, another Finnish painter (that I personally think everyone should take a look at!).

In 1890 he married Mary Sloor and the couple had three children; Impi Marjatta, Kirsti and Jorma. When his daughter Impi Marjatta died from Diphtheria in march 1895, Gallen-Kallela’s art would change. He had painted romantic works earlier, but would now make more aggressive art like for example ”the Defence of the Sampo”.

Axel Waldemar Gallén officially changed his name to the more Finnish sounding Akseli Gallen-Kallela in 1907. In 1909 he moved with his family to Nairobi, Kenya, but discovered after just a couple of years that his main inspiration was Finland and returned home. There between 1911 and 1913 he designed and built a studio and house at Tarvaspää about 10 km north of the centre of Helsinki.

In 1917, Gallen-Kallela and his son Jorma took part in the fighting at the front of the Finnish Civil War. When the regent, General Mannerheim heard about this in 1918, he invited Gallen-Kallela to design the flags, official decorations and uniforms of the newly independent Finland.
In 1925 he began the illustrations for his “Great Kalevala”. This was still unfinished when he died in Stockholm in 1931 when returning from a lecture in Copenhagen, Denmark.

(You can see more of his art in the Ateneum Museum.)



In the museum

In the museum, you can find the rich and varied art of Gallen-Kallela, such as; paintings, drawings, graphics, sculpture, posters, photographs and works of applied art as well as his personal belongings and documents. You can also find a lot of information about his interesting life, family and friends.

Right now

As well as the art of Gallen-Kallela, there are other masterpieces on display.
From the 26th of May until the 2nd of September 2007 there is an exhibition called “Married to Art – Nordic Artist Couples” in the museum. It focuses on the interaction of Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish artist couples from the turn of the century of the 1900’s and how the fact that both the woman and the man was an artist affected the family life.

Coming up

From the 8th of September 2007 until the 13th of January 2008 there will be an exhibition called ” The Erkki Tanttu Centenary Exhibition”. The exhibition will focus on Erkki Tanttu’s (1907-1985) works in book art. He was an expert printmaker and he followed Gallen-Kallela’s way of portraying the common people in his art.

The website of the museum is:
http://www.gallen-kallela.fi/english.html

and the address and telephone number are:

The Gallen-Kallela MuseumGallen-Kallelan tie 27, 02600 Espoo, FinlandTel. : +358 9 849 2340, Fax : +358 9 541 6426


I urge you all to go there and take a look! With romantic art and charming atmosphere, it’s well worth the trip!

-Elise Gegauff.