Amos Rex is an art museum named after publisher and arts patron

Amos Anderson Amos Valentin Anderson (3 September 1878, Kimito, Finland – 2 April 1961, Kimito, Finland) was the owner of Finland's largest Swedish-language newspaper, Hufvudstadsbladet, and a patron of the arts. Amos Anderson grew up in the Southwestern Arch ...

located in

Lasipalatsi Lasipalatsi ( sv, Glaspalatset; meaning literally "glass palace") is a functionalist office building designed in the 1930s, located on Mannerheimintie in the Kamppi district of Helsinki, Finland. Lasipalatsi is one of Helsinki's most notable funct ...

Mannerheimintie Mannerheimintie ( sv, Mannerheimvägen), named after the Finnish military leader and statesman Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, is the main street and boulevard of Helsinki, Finland. It was originally named Heikinkatu ( sv, Henriksgatan), after Rob ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, Finland. It opened in 2018 and rapidly reached international popularity, attracting more than 10,000 visitors in a matter of weeks.

History

In 2013, the museum announced plans to build a subterranean annex under the

plaza, located near the museum's premises on Yrjönkatu. The annex was estimated to cost 50 million euros and to also use facilities above the ground in the Lasipalatsi building. The Helsinki City Board decided to reserve the plot for the museum in December 2013. The funding was provided by the Finnish-Swedish arts foundation

Konstsamfundet Föreningen Konstsamfundet (lit. "The Art Foundation Association") is a Finnish association with the goal of supporting the culture of the Swedish-speaking minority of Finland. It was founded in 1940 by '' vuorineuvos'' Amos Anderson, a newspaper ...

. The museum plan was unanimously approved by the

Helsinki City Council The City Council of Helsinki (, ) is the main decision-making organ in the local politics of Helsinki, Finland. The City Council deals with issues such as city planning, schools, health care, and public transport. The 85-seat Council's members a ...

in May 2014 and the new annex was scheduled to open in 2017. The new annex was designed by JKMM Architects, whose other works include the Turku Main Library and the Finnish pavilion at the 2010

Shanghai World Expo Expo 2010, officially the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, from 1 May to 31 October 2010. It was a major World Expo registered by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), in the tr ...

. The construction of the new museum started in January 2016 and it opened to the public in August 2018.

Exhibitions

Massless

Massless, the first exhibition at the Amos Rex museum, was created by the Japanese collective

teamLab OnlyOffice (formerly TeamLab), stylized as ONLYOFFICE, is a free software office suite developed by Ascensio System SIA, a subsidiary of "New Communication Technologies", a company from Russia, but headquartered in Riga, Latvia. In Russian marke ...

. It consisted of a colourful, immersive interactive art exhibition. Viewers were encouraged to interact and explore with the surroundings, generating different visual results.

Amos Anderson Art Museum, 1965-2017

The Amos Anderson Art Museum ( fi, Amos Andersonin taidemuseo, sv, Amos Andersons konstmuseum) is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily co ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

. It is the largest private art museum in Finland. The museum is currently situated on Yrjönkatu, with a subterranean annex, known as Amos Rex, built beneath

History

The museum was founded by

, the owner of the Swedish-language

Hufvudstadsbladet ''Hufvudstadsbladet'' (abbr. ''Hbl'') is the highest-circulation Swedish-language newspaper in Finland. Its headquarters is located in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The name of the newspaper translates approximately into "Journal of the Cap ...

newspaper and a patron of the arts. In 1913, Anderson commissioned architects W. G. Palmqvist and

Einar Sjöström Einar is a Scandinavian given name deriving from the Old Norse name Einarr, which according to Guðbrandur Vigfússon is directly connected with the concept of the einherjar, warriors who died in battle and ascended to Valhalla in Norse mytholog ...

to design a building on Yrjönkatu. The building would function as both Anderson's private living quarters and office space for his businesses. After Anderson's death in 1961, the building was converted into a museum, which opened in 1965. As of early 2019,

Luckan Luckan ( Swedish for "ticket window" or "box office") is a network of Finland-Swedish cultural centres in Finland. Currently, there are located in 11 cities and towns in Finland: Helsinki, Kimito in Kimitoön, Kirkkonummi, Kokkola, Kristinestad, N� ...

, a Konstsamundet financed center for

Finland Swedish Finland Swedish or Fenno-Swedish ( sv, finlandssvenska; fi, suomenruotsi) is a general term for the variety of the Swedish language and a closely related group of Swedish dialects spoken in Finland by the Swedish-speaking population, commonly ...

culture, moved to the Yrjönkatu building previously used by the museum.

Collections and exhibitions

The Amos Anderson Art Museum's collections include primarily

20th-century art Twentieth-century art—and what it became as modern art—began with modernism in the late nineteenth century. Overview Nineteenth-century movements of Post-Impressionism (Les Nabis), Art Nouveau and Symbolism led to the first twentieth-century ...

, with some of the oldest works originally belonging to Amos Anderson's personal collection. The museum has paintings by Francesco Bassano (''Adoration of the Magi''),

Paul Signac Paul Victor Jules Signac ( , ; 11 November 1863 – 15 August 1935) was a French Neo-Impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the Pointillist style. Biography Paul Signac was born in Paris on 11 November 1863. ...

Louis Valtat Louis Valtat (; 8 August 1869 – 2 January 1952) was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Fauves ("the wild beasts", so named for their wild use of color), who first exhibited together in 1905 at the Salon d'Automne. ''Les Fau ...

, Roger Fry,

Alfred Finch Alfred William (Willy) Finch (1854 –1930) was a ceramist and painter in the pointillist and Neo-Impressionist style. Born in Brussels to British parents, he spent most of his creative life in Finland. Life and work Alfred William Finch ...

(''View of Fiesöle''),

Ragnar Ekelund Ragnar ( non, Ragnarr ) is a masculine Germanic given name, composed of the Old Norse elements ''ragin-'' "counsel" and ''hari-'' "army". Origin and variations The Proto-Germanic forms of the compounds are "ragina" (counsel) and "harjaz" or " ...

, Magnus Enckell,

Eero Nelimarkka Eero Aleksander Nelimarkka (10 October 1891 – 27 January 1977) was a Finnish painter. He is best known for depicting the flat landscapes of Ostrobothnia known as ''lakeus'' but he also produced portraits of notable Finns and family member ...

Tyko Sallinen Tyko Konstantin Sallinen (March 14, 1879 in Nurmes – September 18, 1955 in Helsinki) was a Finnish expressionism style painter. In late 1916 Sallinen became a founder member of the November Group, which was a Finnish group of expressionists an ...

Tove Jansson Tove Marika Jansson (; 9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. Brought up by artistic parents, Jansson studied art from 1930 to 1938 in Stockholm, Helsinki and ...

(''Fantasy''), and the Swedish painter Palm. In its acquisitions, the museum concentrates on contemporary art. The museum arranges 8–12 exhibitions a year.

References

External links

Official website
{{Helsinki Cityscape Buildings and structures completed in 1913 1965 establishments in Finland Art museums established in 1965 Museums in Helsinki Art museums and galleries in Finland Anderson, Amos Kamppi

History

Exhibitions

Massless

Amos Anderson Art Museum, 1965-2017

History

Collections and exhibitions

See also

References

External links