PRESS RELEASE, 25 June 2014 For public release
taidemuseo - konstmuseum - art museum Edvard Munch exhibition opening at the Didrichsen Art Museum, Finland on 6 September 2014 An exhibition of works by the famous Nordic artist Edvard Munch (1863-­‐1944) will be shown at the Didrichsen Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland from 6 September 2014 to 1 February 2015. The result of ten years of negotiations, the exhibition Edvard Munch – The Dance of Life is the first time in fifteen years that the master’s works have been shown in Finland. It will include more than fifty works, most of them oil paintings but also prints. The Didrichsen Art Museum was reopened in June 2014 after undergoing extensive, modernising renovations. Rarely loaned works from Nordic museums Oil paintings from the Stenersen Collection in the Oslo Munch Museum are the focal point of the exhibition. Rolf Stenersen (1899-­‐1978) was a Norwegian who made a fortune on the stock market and invested his wealth in art. He built up a large collection of Munch’s works, which he subsequently donated to Oslo and Bergen. As a patron of the arts, Stenersen can be compared to the founders of the Didrichsen Art Museum, Marie-­‐Louise (1913-­‐1988) and Gunnar (1903-­‐1992) Didrichsen, and like them he was also interested in international Modernism. Among the famous paintings on show are The Dance of Life, Melancholy and History from the Stenersen Munch Collection. Other important works have been loaned by the Thielska Galleriet of Stockholm, and include the oil painting The Sick Child and some twenty prints of works like The Scream and Madonna. The Thielska Galleriet has never previously loaned its prints and this is also only the second time The Sick Child has been loaned since it was acquired at the beginning of the last century. The exhibition also includes what is considered to be a finer version of The Vampire from the Gothenburg Art Museum. Other works have been loaned by the Norwegian National Museum, Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm, the Finnish National Gallery and the Turku Art Museum. Also being shown are bronze busts of Munch and Rolf Stenersen, as well as a portrait of Edvard Munch painted by Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-­‐Kallela in 1895. The Sick Child, 1907. Thielska Galleriet. / Vampire, 1893. Gothenburg Art Museum. © Munchmuseet / Munch-­‐Ellingsen-­‐Gruppen / KUVASTO 2014 Munch’s art contains a powerful message Edvard Munch is considered to be one of the greatest artists of the early 20th century. His psychological imagery continues to convey a powerful message. The expressiveness of his mature PRESS RELEASE, 25 June 2014 For public release
taidemuseo - konstmuseum - art museum symbolist works was considered in its time quite revolutionary. Munch was an important role figure among Nordic and Continental Expressionist artists. The human tragedies in Munch’s life – sickness, the death of loved ones, fear and anguish – found expression in his art. In addition to these motifs, the exhibition also shows the less familiar side of his production as it includes numerous portraits and nude studies. The Didrichsen Art Museum will publish an exhibition book entitled Edvard Munch – The Dance of Life. In addition to a catalogue of works and biography of the painter, the book includes essays by Finnish art historian Leena Ahtola-­‐Moorhouse and Norwegian Munch scholar Hans-­‐Martin Frydenberg Flaatten. Two separate editions will be printed – Finnish-­‐Swedish and Finnish-­‐English. * EXHIBITION INFO Edvard Munch – The Dance of Life Saturday 6.9.2014 – Sunday 1.2.2015 Tues-­‐Sun 11 am -­‐ 6 pm Guided tours in Finnish on Saturdays and Sundays, 1 pm, in Swedish on Sundays 12 pm. Tickets 13 / 8 € DIDRICHSEN ART MUSEUM Address: Kuusilahdenkuja 1, Helsinki, Finland Contacts: office (at) didrichsenmuseum.fi, puh. 010 2193 970 The Didrichsen Art Museum in Kuusisaari, Helsinki, was opened in 1965. The more than a thousand works of art collected by the Finnish-­‐Swedish Marie-­‐Louise Didrichsen (1913-­‐1988) and her Danish husband Gunnar Didrichsen (1903-­‐1992) includes works from the Finnish Golden Age, Finnish and international Modernism and Pre-­‐Columbian and ancient Chinese art and artefacts. The Museum arranges 2-­‐3 exhibitions each year. This homely museum is where Viljo Revell’s modernist architecture and art meets nature. Website: www.didrichsenmuseum.fi Facebook: www.facebook.com/DidrichsenArtMuseum Twitter: https://twitter.com/DidMuseum Instagram: http://instagram.com/didrichsenartmuseum FOR THE MEDIA Contacts: Anna Kari, Pink Eminence, tel. +358 40 717 8185, anna (at) pinkeminence.fi or Maria Didrichsen, Didrichsen Art Museum, tel. +358 40 552 1000, maria (at) didrichsenmuseum.fi Photographs: http://holvi.artstudio.fi/didrichsen (user ID didrichsen, password pressi)