Pleasure

Serlachius Manor

10.06.2017

—04.11.2018

Anna Retulaisen maalaama värikäs Heleä Kesäpäivä-maalaus

Art of Jukka Korkeila, Elina Merenmies and Anna Retulainen and works from Serlachius Collection

The exhibition Pleasure presents new paintings by three leading contemporary artists: Jukka Korkeila, Elina Merenmies and Anna Retulainen in interaction with works from Serlachius’ collection. 

The artists intuitively selected works from the Fine Arts Foundation’s collections that spoke to them. Alongside them, they created new works whose brushstrokes convey the bold joy of doing something new. An artist can enjoy the painting process itself and immersing oneself in the work, as well as knowing that one is doing what one was meant to do.

The exhibition also features works from the Golden Age of Finnish art as well as old European art, which will be on display for the first time in a long time after conservation. The viewer has the opportunity to realise and find connections between the past and the present, and to place themselves in the continuum of history through images. In this way, the subject expands to include being in front of the unhurried painting, being present and interacting with the painting.

– In addition to making art, looking at it can be enjoyable, says Laura Kuurne, Chief Curator of the Serlachius Museums, who curated the exhibition.

The subject matter in old European art refer to secular pleasures. Many of the works evoke sensory experiences, so the theme of the exhibition can be approached in this way as well.

From Serlachius’ collections are included artists such as Ellen Thesleff, Maria Wiik, Olga Ehrström, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Francisco Zurbaran, Jan van Ravesteyn, Jusepe de Ribera, Michelangelo di Campidoglio and Pieter Lastman. The exhibition is organised in cooperation with HAM. The curator of the Pleasure exhibition in Helsinki is Mika Hannula