A Visit to the Didrichsen Art Museum

After arriving in Helsinki late Saturday afternoon, we had a full day on Sunday to explore and do a bit of tourism before my course started on Monday. The weather was rather cold and grey with rain showers so we decided that some indoor rip to activity was the best option. I suggested a visit out to the Didrichsen Art Museum which is a little way out from the city centre on the island of Kuusisaari so we took the metro and bus out and returned via bus and tram. I’d visited during a previous work related trip to Helsinki back in October 2014 when I’d seen an exhibition of works by Edvard Munch.

The museum was originally a private residence owned by enthusiastic Modern Art collectors Marie-Louise and Gunnar Didrichsen. It’s an attractive house in a beautiful setting in the woods by the sea – a Modernist building designed by architect Viljo Revell  in 1958-59 and is . An extension was added six years later to house the owners’ art collection.

The Museum has an extensive collection of works by 20^th Century Finnish artists and works by international artists including Picasso, Kandinsky, Miró, Léger, Moore, Giacometti and Arp.  In addition they have a Pre-Columbian art collection and a collection of Oriental art. There’s also a sculpture garden with works displayed at the front of the house and in the wooded gardens at the back of the house leading down to the sea.

During our visit the museum had two exhibitions. The main one featured works by two Finnish artists, a married couple, Ahti and Maija Lavonen. One of the rooms in the extension basement was displaying a selection of the main works from the Didrichsen modern collection – The Heart of the Didrichsen Collection. The exhibition is a preview of some of the gems of the nearly 100 works which will be shown at Millesgården in Stockholm during the summer of 2018.

I’ll cover the Ahti and Maija Lavonen exhibition in a separate post but here’s a selection of the works from The Heart of the Didrichsen Collection.

Upright Interior Form (Flower) by Henry Moore

Mother and child with wave background II by Henry Moore

Demeter by Jean Arp

Nu Debout by Pablo Picasso

Eglise a Marnau by Wassilly Kadinsky

a small sculpture by Giacometti

small reclining figure by Henry Moore

Curved form with inner form (Anima) by Barbara Hepworth

The Sandman by Salvador Dali

and the sculpture garden.

Augustus by Bernard Meadows

Blueberries by Paula Salmela

Dialogue by Eero Hiironen

Watergate by Eero Hiironen

Crosswork by Mauno Hartman

Mama Africa by Tilla Kekki

Mama Europaby Tilla Kekki

Atom Piece by Henry Moore

Assemble by Lionel Smit

Sunflower Field by Eila Hiltunen

Turbulence by Eila Hiltunen

Arctic Aphrodite by Laila Pullinen

Crescendo by Laila Pullinen

Stele deOfferende by Mario Negri