Sunday, 02-June-2024


Continuing with tradition, I started my adventures in Helsinki with an Art Museum. As it turns out, Finland (and Helsinki in particular) have a whole series of art museums, sort of like the Smithsonian, of which the Ateneum is the “middle” museum chronologically… with one museum holding older paintings and another holding more contemporary works.

In retrospect, I do miss that I didn’t start with the gallery holding the older paintings, called the Sinebrychoff art museum. The Ateneum was amazing, no doubt, but its focus is targeted from the 1700s to the early 20th century, which is definitely more of a “traditional European” time… while interesting, it’s something I know fairly well… contrasted to older Finnish paintings, which could have given me a deeper view into the older culture of Finland.

All that being said – Ohh man I enjoyed this gallery. It was a good mix of paintings and sculptures, giving a really neat look into the evolution of the Finnish national psyche… paintings that dove into some of the challenges (Slash and burn farming), along with portraits and histories of some influential culture figures (Larin Paraske, specifically).

Of all the pieces, though, one specific standout piece seriously blew me away… blending older-style representational landscapes and modern commentary! check it out:

I could wax poetic about how cool of an idea this is, but in short it’s just such a neat way to combine beautiful paintings that let the viewer step into a beautiful scene, and still make a commentary on some of the issues that we’re facing today.

The rest of the pieces were excellent as well, without a doubt – but this specific one just stood out as my favorite. And since this is, in fact, my blog… I get to celebrate it!

Without further adieu, though – enjoy the other standouts!