SCULPTURE! -Educational exhibition in the Maire Gullichsen and Modernism series

Artists featured in the exhibition are Gunnar Elfgren, Laila Pullinen, Kimmo Pyykkö, Sakari Tohka

Sculptures in bronze, iron or stone are by their very nature permanent. The sense of timelessness and immutability is only intensified by the idea of sculptures resting in the bosom of a museum in carefully regulated conditions. The Sculpture! exhibition investigates the solidity of the link between artworks and the ideas and ideologies of their time. Can present-day audiences approach artworks of past decades with the same freshness as contemporaries did, when the works engaged in the art discourse of their time by either challenging or confirming the then prevalent ideas and attitudes? Can features which challenged the taste of the age or enjoyed general acceptance still touch us in the same way? Does an artwork change because we are different?

MEDIA RELEASE

SCULPTURE!
A Pedagogical Exhibition in the Maire Gullichsen and Modernism Series
12/02 – 04/04 2010
Project Room

Media brunch: Thursday, 11 February, from 10:00 to 14:00.
Public briefing: Friday, 12 February, at 12:00.
Exhibition opening: Friday, 12 February, at 18:00.

Welcome!

Artists featured in the exhibition:
Gunnar Elfgren, Laila Pullinen, Kimmo Pyykkö, Sakari Tohka

Bronze, iron, and stone sculptures are inherently enduring in their physical presence. This sense of permanence and immutability is heightened when one imagines these sculptures resting in the meticulously regulated conditions of a museum. Sculpture! questions the extent to which an artwork is tied to the era of its creation and the prevailing modes of thought of that time.

Does a contemporary viewer encounter the art of past decades with the same freshness as its contemporaries, who experienced it as a part of the art discourse, challenging or echoing the artistic conventions of their time? Do the traits that tested the taste of audiences or won widespread approval in the past still resonate with us today? Does the artwork change because we change?

Sculpture! examines the relationship between art and its audience, as well as the interplay between an artwork and the history of art. In the context of a museum, a work of art is interpreted in relation to other displayed works, the museum’s history and exhibition policies, and both current and historical artistic movements. In the exhibition space, the work also engages with the wandering gaze of the viewer.

By presenting collection exhibitions from diverse perspectives, artworks are placed under new scrutiny. While the artwork as a physical object remains the same, the interpretations it generates can shift. Sculpture! invites viewers to reflect on the significance of the avant-garde—not as a stylistic movement, but as a “practice” within the art world, where the understanding of art is continually renewed. At times, the pioneers of art are only recognized or defined retrospectively.

The three-dimensional figures shaped from stone and metal in Sculpture! confront the living, breathing viewer in the space. The history of art and its experience is full of attacks, rejections, counterattacks, and surrenders, as well as temporary or more enduring truces that solidify into prevailing conceptions of art. Knowledge of art history can be both an advantage and a hindrance when engaging with art. The more one knows about art, the more points of connection one has with various works, but adhering to pre-existing interpretations can also narrow one’s own understanding.

Familiar works, styles, or eras often carry preconceived notions from viewers, making them “already seen” by the time they encounter them in an exhibition, rather than experienced directly in the moment. The viewer knows what they expect from the work and what the work expects of them. As a result, older works rarely manage to surprise contemporary audiences.

This exhibition, composed of selected works from the Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation’s collection, does not aim to provide a chronological or comprehensive overview of the development of sculpture in Finland. Instead, the spatial installation created with these sculptures illustrates how contemporary art approaches the past and reveals new meanings within works from previous decades.

Each sculpture can be viewed individually, yet each is also part of numerous art narratives, constructed not only by the museum and art historians but also by the viewers themselves.

Further information:
Exhibition curator, Anni Venäläinen

Translated with ChatGPT