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| Gustav Klimt: Amalie Zuckerkandl (1917/1918). 128 x 128 cm. Öl auf Leinwand. 1988 Widmung Vita & Gustav Künstler. Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Wien. Photo: Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Vienna. The feminist journalist and salonnière Amalie Zuckerkandl was a Christian who converted to Judaism to marry the surgeon and urologist, Dr. Otto Zuckerkandl. The marriage ended in 1919. Under the Nuremberg Racial Laws she was murdered, together with her daughter Hermine Müller-Hofmann, in 1942 in the Bełžec concentration camp. |
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| Gallen-Kallela, Klimt & Wien (2025). The handsome Ateneum Art Museum exhibition catalogue has been published in three language editions (Finnish, Swedish, English). See publication details below. |
EXHIBITION: GALLEN-KALLELA, KLIMT & WIEN
Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, 26 Sep 2025-1 Feb 2026.
Kaivokatu 2, 00100 Helsinki.
Partners: Belvedere (Vienna) and Klimt Foundation (Vienna)
Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff, Museum Director
Anu Utriainen, Curator
Dr. Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt (Belvedere), Advisor
See exhibition credits below.
Visited at the press conference, 24 Sep 2025.
Amalie Zuckerkandl's sister Berta was a Viennese art critic who covered the Viennese Secession scene, also registering the Finn Axel Gallen as belonging to that scene.
"At the time, in the early bloom of the Secession and the glorious Gustav Mahler epoch, so-called parties would be held at our home or at Karl Moll's whenever foreign artists, who had been streaming to Vienna since the establishment of the Secession, were around."
"In Klimt's studio or Kolo Moser's workshop, where the differences were strongly felt, where the shared ideas began timidly and gently to germinate. The great commonality of modern art that, while rooted in national sensitivity, reveals its noblest blossoms in the transnational realm. Axel Gallen's robust freshness had a powerful effect on Klimt. For his part, Gallen took strength from the architectural rigour and the art of combining stylization with nature that characterized Klimt but also ennobled Kolo Moser's work to such a marked degree. And that was expressed most strongly in Josef Hoffmann's nature." (Berta Zuckerkandl, Neues Wiener Journal, 22 March 1931, quoted by Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt)
Insights such are these are of the essence in a new magnificent exhibition at Ateneum Art Museum, the Finnish National Gallery. The Wiener Secession is well-known, and Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) a household name, but this is the first time in the Nordic countries that a major exhibition of the Wiener Secession is mounted.
Curated by Anu Utriainen (Ateneum) and Dr. Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt (Belvedere, Vienna), the ambition is high and wide. Art was a major factor in a transformation in the entire way of life. The Secession wanted to cover all arts in a harmonic vision of total art. It was not a style but covered a wealth of styles. Besides traditional arts such as painting, the Secession embraced photography, prints, architecture and design, including costume design. It could be private and sensual, but also monumental. In landscapes, transcendence was reflected. In portraying the past, a mythical dimension was prominent.
In Klimt's work, the main subject is the woman, endlessly inspiring as the force of life, often nude, sensual and erotic. Male gaze indeed, but a gaze of admiration and adoration. I don't find in it a gaze of objectification, instead it is a loving gaze. In costume design and portraits, we register a liberation of women. Gustav Klimt's life partner was Emilie Flöge (1874-1952), couturière, fashion designer, boutique owner and businesswoman. Fashion and art were inseparable. While the Secession was not a particular style, it was about style in general. I am reminded of a Jean Cocteau quote that was evoked in obituaries of Giorgio Armani (1934-2025): "Style is a simple way of saying complex things".
There is such a wealth in the treasure collection of the exhibition that it is a good idea to catch one's breath in the café in the third floor exhibition area and examine the stylish exhibition catalogue.
A revelation and a discovery is on display for the first time: a large-size Gustav Klimt portfolio of 50 de luxe prints (collotypes, heliographs) with gold finishing that belongs to the Finnish National Library. The copy is unique because it is complete and in perfect condition. Curated and overseen by Klimt himself as his final work, it is an overview to his most beloved works. On an everyman scale, you can buy a pack of Gustav Klimt playing cards with roughly the same impact in miniature. Klimt's work always has a graphic dimension which means that they are scalable.
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OFFICIAL INTRODUCTION
Towards a New, Freer Conception of Art
Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit.
To every age its art, to every art its freedom.
(Ludwig Hevesi)
The young artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries wanted to make a radical break away from what they considered to be outdated art ideals and move towards a new, freer conception of art. The most famous example of such a departure is the Vienna Secession, which was founded in 1897 under the direction of Gustav Klimt.
The Gallen-Kallela, Klimt & Wien exhibition will present artists with whom Akseli Gallen-Kallela collaborated and in whose exhibitions he participated. At the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was a pulsating hub of new ideas, styles and international influences, attracting artists from various fields all over Europe. The efforts of these artists to reform art and the world of art are highlighted in the exhibition, which will feature both modern art and design.
The main goal of the Secessionists was the equality of all art forms. Visual art, architecture, crafts, design and fashion were to represent a changed and modern world. The Secessionists were united by the development of a new identity and way of life, as well as an interest in large public works of art and the depiction of beauty. Secessionism was an expansive but not unified art movement. Rather, it incorporated a broad array of styles and a striving for both stylisation and simplification.
The exhibition will feature works, for example, by the following artists and designers: Emilie Flöge, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Ferdinand Hodler, Josef Hoffmann, Gustav Klimt, Broncia Koller-Pinell, Max Kurzweil, Elena Luksch-Makowsky, Koloman Moser, Edvard Munch, and Egon Schiele.
The Gallen-Kallela, Klimt & Wien exhibition will be realised in collaboration with the Belvedere art museum in Vienna. The exhibition is curated by the chief curator at the Ateneum, Anu Utriainen in cooperation with Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt, PhD (Belvedere). There will be an exhibition catalogue published in Finnish, Swedish and English.
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The exhibition’s production group
PROJECT LEADER Maikki Lavikkala
CURATOR Anu Utriainen
ADVISOR Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt (Belvedere)
COORDINATION Anna Pirkkalainen
EXHIBITION DESIGN Osmo Leppälä
GRAPHIC DESIGN Osmo Leppälä • Tuija Kuusela • Suvi Wirman
PUBLIC PROGRAMMES Karoliina Arola • Elina Battarbee • Satu Itkonen • Heidi Mikkola • Erica Othman
COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING Reetta Haarajoki • Anna Kari • Saara Myllymäki • Suvi Rusanen • Jaana Rosenlew • Emma Valjakka
MUSEUM TECHNICIANS Anssi Ahlgrén • Alina Arkonkoski • Mikko Hallikainen • Timo Hiltunen • Hannu Ikola • Mika Immonen • Kari-Petteri Kakko • Martti Kervinen • Kaisa Kivinen • Raimo Lehtomaa • Reine Lukinmaa • Mikko Martikainen • Jussi Pakkala • Isa Päivinen • Sami Rautio • Jürgen Sachau • Jyrki Vahteristo • Mikko Viinikainen • Topi Vähäsarja
LIGHTING Timo Nurminen • Johanna Naalisvaara
CONSERVATION Kirsi Hiltunen • Pia Hurri • Liisa Kantanen • Seppo Laakkonen • Linda Linden • Ilona Osara • Jenna Parkkila-Mäki • Minna Rajaniemi • Henrietta Savonius • Kaisu Voutilainen • Riitta Vuori
PHOTOGRAPHY Ainur Nasretdin • Jenni Nurminen • Hannu Pakarinen • Aleks Talve
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GALLEN-KALLELA, KLIMT & WIEN CATALOGUE
Gallen-Kallela, Klimt & Wien exhibition at Ateneum 26.9.2025–1.2.2026.
Early 20th-century Vienna was a vibrant and highly international centre for the arts and sciences that brought artists from a variety of disciplines together with other influential cultural figures. What they shared was a commitment to artistic reform and to embracing all forms of art as equal. It was in Vienna that Akseli Gallen-Kallela made the acquaintance of Gustav Klimt, a founder member of the Vienna Secession, a movement that represented a modern approach to art.
The Secessionists were engaged in the pursuit of what they called the Gesamtkunstwerk, a ‘total work of art’ integrating different art forms, from painting and architecture to design, music and literature, to create an aesthetic and harmonious whole. Akseli Gallen-Kallela, too, shared this aim. Highly regarded by the Secessionists, he was invited to show his works at the group’s exhibitions in Vienna in 1901 and 1904.
The articles in this Ateneum exhibition catalogue illustrate Gallen-Kallela’s role within the wider European art scene and position him in the context of this international movement that challenged not only the artistic conventions of the day but the way people lived their lives. Expert contributors explore the work of the movement’s central figures, shedding light on the influence they came to exert on modern Finnish artists and designers.
Publisher: Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art Museum, 2025.
Editors: Hanne Selkokari (editor) & Lene Wahlsten (photo editor).
Graphic design: Tuija Kuusela.
Writers: Anu Utriainen, Teppo Jokinen, Sandra Tretter, Peter Weinhäupl, Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt, Marja Lahelma, Leena Svinhufvud, Alexander Klee & Hanne Selkokari.
ISBN 978-952-7371-84-8
Size 21 x 26 cm, 180 pages.
Hardcover.
Three editions: Finnish, Swedish and English.
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