Tove Jansson at the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki

Like most Finns, I'm a bit of a Muumin fanatic. It's no wonder, since I grew up with the characters and the TV cartoons. I also passed this love of the simultaneously wise and naive characters created by Tove Jansson onto my children.

To celebrate Tove Janssons centenary, the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki are stageing an exhibition of her life and works. I was alerted to this 100 year celebration of the birth of the creator of the Muumin Trolls, by my Finnish friend, one who I often refer to on this blog. As usual, she has her ear to the ground about all things arty both here in the UK but especially in Finland, and told me I absolutely have to make time during my latest working whistle- stop visit of Finland to go to the Ateneum.

My friend being the good friend she is, even got me the name and phone number of the curator, so that I could take photos of the exhibition, as 'an important blogger'! In fact I took pictures for the Finn-Guild Horisontti magazine too - and wore my first Finn-Guild press badge proudly.

The Ateneum exhibition charts Jansson's development as artist - painter, illustrator and writer - chronologically. It also has pieces by her painter father, and many charming self-portraits of the artist herself. There are copies of political illustrations Tove Jansson made for a satirical magazine Garm during the 2nd world war, as well as many original prints of the much beloved Muumin drawings. The most charming of the displays are paper mâché (or to give them their correct description: mixed medium) pieces of the characters and the Muumin houses. These were all in glass cases, and I tried my best to get good images of them.

When I returned to the apartment where I was staying, and looked out of the window, I saw where Tove Jansson got her inspiration for some of the Muumin landscapes. The pastel coloured houses with pointy turrets and dark slate roofs of Ullanlinna, the part of Helsinki where Jansson lived, are very similar to the blue Moomin house. And the bare trees reminded me of the dark forests of the melancholy Moomin tales.

“You must go on a long journey before you can really find out how wonderful home is.” 
― Tove Jansson, Comet in Moominland

Don't miss this fantastic exhibition!

The Ateneum, Helsinki

Tove Jansson

14.03 - 07.09.2014

Kaivokatu 2

000100 Helsinki

www.ateneum.fi

A new biography to coincide with the exhibition, 'Tee Työtä ja Rakasta' by Tuula Karjalainen out for the time being in Finnish and Swedish only, is available here. If you are a Finn-Guild member, there is a copy to borrow from our library. Contact mail [at] Finn-Guild [dot] org for more information about membership and Finn-Guild library services.

Alex Gough Erämaa Exhibition

Alex Gough is a talented Finnish/British painter whose work has previously brought me to tears.

I first came across Alex through a good friend who's been following his progress for some time. A couple of years ago, she took me to his exhibition at Orion Contemporary Gallery in St James's in London. One look at Alex's paintings depicting the blue hour (the time between dusk and complete darkness) in Finnish Lapland, and I felt a lump in my throat. I'd just returned from a skiing trip to Ylläs at the time, and the landscape had made me so homesick that looking at the excellent way Alex had captured the essence of the place and time made my eyes well up. (Even now gazing at the image of Polku, which means 'Path' in English, I have to fight back the tears)

Polku.
OIl Acrylic and Indian Ink on Canvas. 35x65cm. 2009
Alex Gough

Last night's private preview showed how Alex has developed as an artist (and here I must admit to being in no way an expert at art - I'll have to refer you to History-of-Art-student Daughter for that). Instead of painting the actual landscape, Alex has taken a completely abstract route and shows us instead the feel of nature. He wants his work to reflect back to us, so that we experience optical illusions and a deeper sense of landscape.

His methods are varied, he makes his own acrylic colours, and then pours them, mixes them, dabs them and 'lets the chemicals react with the canvas'. In his largest piece, a painting which filled most of one wall at the exhibition, turquoise and deep black is combined with white and all shades in between.

No.17.  180x245cm

Cobalt Turquoise, Spinel Black pigment, acrylic binder, gesso, gouache canvas.

2012

Alex Gough

But my eyes were drawn to a smaller piece which to me, under the excellent lighting of the gallery, looked salmon pink, but which Alex said was actually orange. Here, and in all the other smaller pieces, the canvas was covered with a fine nylon netting, allowing the colours to shift and shine. At the left hand corner, the artists had placed a matt spot of turquoise, which draws the eye and in a pleasurable way distracts and disturbs the movement of the painting. He'd also painted on top of the netting, giving the work even more depth.

No.15. 78x110cm
Irgazine Orange, Cobalt Turquoise pigment,
acrylic binder, gesso, gouache canvas and polyester. Alex Gough 2012

I must also say how wonderful it was to hear Alex speak Finnish. He was born in the UK but has the fluency of a native speaker. Some feat with a difficult language like ours!

Me with the Artist last night.

Do go and see Alex Gough's excellent exhibition, if you are anywhere near London before the 11 November 2012.

Erämaa
Wilderness
****Extended to 21 November*** 
10 Georgian House
10 Bury Street
St James's
London SW1Y 2AA
By appoinment only
www.orioncontemporary.com
02071938373  

The play that never was and the Saatchi Gallery in London

I was all set to go and see a sold out play at The Royal Court by Mike Bartlett called 'Love, love, love' yesterday. But as a friend and I approached the theatre there was sign saying the day's performances were cancelled due to 'an unforeseen circumstance'. We stood outside dumbfounded for a moment - neither of us had even heard of a performance being cancelled. 'What happened to "The show must go on"?,' my friend asked. We debated what to do, and struck upon the idea of going to the nearby Saatchi Gallery instead. We were not put off by bad reviews given to us by a fellow disappointed theatre goer, because art is art is art - even if it's bad you have experienced something. (That's my view and I'm sticking to it). Besides, I'd never been to the Saatchi Gallery - being a North Londoner (for all of 18 months!), I now rarely venture out to the SW post codes. (How London am I?)

The sun was beaming down on us as we made our way slowly from Sloane Square towards King's Road. If you've ever been to London in a heatwave, you know it becomes a different city. People are smiling and happy. I myself had forgotten how much I enjoy this part of London, especially during the Chelsea Flower Show. As long as you're not working in the area, and in a rush to get somewhere, it's nice to take in the atmosphere which spills out from the annual horticultural show. The whole place is decorated with greenery (even Sloane Square Tube Station has pots and pots of plants), it's filled with people wearing all manner of hats, and summery clothes, on their way in or out of the flower show.

But boy was it hot! It was reported the temperature hit 30 C in London yesterday. I wore a cotton maxi dress and even though it felt a little too casual for the theatre, I was glad I'd dressed for the weather. (Sorry, no picture - I'm far too pasty to even star in my own blog).

Once inside the Saatchi gallery, housed in a beautiful a Neo-Classical building with added modern touches of glass and steel, we breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully the air con was on full blast, and for a moment it was nice not to feel that you were in a danger of melting away like a ice lolly into a small puddle on the floor.

When we recovered we went in search of the art. But, the current exhibition at the gallery left both my friend and I a little cold (or perhaps it was the air con?).


Out of Focus: Photography includes some interesting, some not so interesting and many (in our humble view) just ridiculous works. The artists who's imagery we enjoyed were:

John Stezaker, who combining old, discarded images, creates unusual portraits. These sad, fun and touching images are pictures of old film stars, cut up and paired with other images. Some of stars we definitely thought we recognised, but it was impossible to tell who many of the others were; they just become part of the portrait leaving no trace of their former incarnation.

Marriage VIII by John Stezaker

Those of you who've been reading this blog for a time, know that I have a huge thing about maps. I love them in all shapes and sizes, but I've never come across maps like the ones Sohei Nishino has conjured up. These dioramas, of Paris, Tokyo and New York, are made entirely of black and white pictures, placed in their approximate positions on a map. The rivers are pictures of the water, the main thoroughfare pictures of the street and so on. The more you look at the diorama, the more details, such as a picture of a little newsagent's shop in Paris, you spot. These works are really fun and they make you realise towns and cities are made of real buildings, real people and real lives. Suddenly a normal map seems false in some way; too clinical and simple. It would have been fun to see one of his dioramas of London - I wonder if one is in the making?

Diorama of New York by Sohei Nishino

Katy Grannan's portraits, shot in LA were the first images we saw, and although at the time I was disturbed by them, I have been thinking a lot about the people in them and wishing I'd taken a second look at Grannan's work. The images are huge, and sad; they are of people who seemingly have lost hope. They are also shot in the glaring Californian sun, which, you must know, (if you are any older than 18) is the most unflattering light you can ever be photographed in.

Katy Grannan
Anonymous, San Francisco, Boulevard 15

Last, but not least, I must mention the permanent installation, 20:50 by Richard Wilson at the Saatchi Gallery. When my friend and I went up to the installation, we first smelled petrol and then gazed down from a balcony at what looked like an architectural display. But when we read the blurb, we realised what we'd been looking at was not a room with six windows, but a room with sump oil, the surface of which reflects the ceiling and windows in the room. It's only when you look carefully at the surface that you can spot the occasional small cluster of bubbles, or a hair that must have fallen from a viewer's head. It was the most incredible piece of work I have seen.

20:50 by Richard Wilson

The black steel structure on the left is a walkway, which looks like it descends into the oil. It was, unfortunately, closed to the public yesterday. The oil reflects the windows on the left, as well as the ceiling panels from above. I thoroughly recommend you go to the gallery just to see this piece, it is truly fantastic.

Out of Focus: Photography
25 April to 22 July 2012
The Saatchi Gallery
Duke of York's HQ
King's Road
London
SW3 4RY
10am-6pm, 7 days a week, last entry 5:30pm

First day of the Crouch End Festival

In pictures:

Festival beer and scotch eggs at The Maynard Arms

Guerilla Bunting gang had been at A Special Interest, one of the Barboot locations.

Sold!

Me with Wendy Saunders whose wonderful paintingsN adorned the walls of Oddbins.

Barboot at The Haberdashery 

It's all in the detail: the light switch at Haberdashery Cafe loos

The nibbles kept the Englishman happy.

Live music

Next stop: Down for the Count at The Music Palace

This group of revellers showed us you're never too old to party. These OAP's (aged from 67 to 71!!!) treated us all to several professional sets of swing dancing. 

From left: Keith Madden, Anthony (who was recovering from a hip and back operation) and Linda Dalton and Marilyn Madden. 

Towards eleven o'clock the dance floor became crowded.

I am so tired from last night and suffering a little from my bad shoulder, so it's a mainly visual post today. Enough to say I thoroughly enjoyed the first night of the festival and cannot wait to see and do more over the weekend. With most events being free (The Music Palace charged us £4 each which was the only entrance fee we paid last night), this is truly recession busting fun.

Details of all Crouch End Festival events online here.