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COLLECTIONS OF THE PORI ART MUSEUM
Collections of the Pori Art Museum Pori Municipal Art Collection Art from the Satakunta Region Deposit Collections
Collections of the Pori Art Museum The Pori Art Museum houses two permanent collections and a number of deposit collections. The total number of works in the collections is nearly 2,800. The museum's two main collections are the collection of the Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation, consisting of 545 works, and the Pori Municipal Collection, comprising 1,534 works of art. The deposit collections support and complement the main collections, both in the field of Finnish art and significantly also in the field of international contemporary art. The museum has also a deposition of 60 works from the Finnish Savings Bank's art collection, mainly by artists from the Satakunta region. The main focus of the Pori Municipal Collection from the 1950s onwards was on Finnish art from the 20th century. When the Pori Art Museum became operational in the early 1980s, the profile of the collections was redefined. This entailed also the specification of new focal areas supported by research and exhibition activities, as well as sustained, systematic work, as a result of which the share of international art acquisitions has grown. Important works of international art have been purchased or received as donations in connection with international exhibitions. The most recent part of the Municipal Collection has in fact many links with the chain of contemporary art movements and artists presented by the Pori Art Museum over nearly the past two decades.
The collection of the Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation consists mainly of Finnish art from the turn of the 19th and 20th century to the 1980s. Works by Magnus Enckell, Tyko Sallinen, Helena Schjerfbeck and Ellen Thesleff belong to the oldest part of the collection. They were also among the earliest acquisitions made by Maire Gullichsen. The main emphasis, however, is on more recent Finnish art, especially abstract art exploring the expressive power of form and colour and deriving its influences from concretism. The core of the collection consists of works by teachers and students of the Free Art School, which also gives the collection its own, distinctive profile. Although the collection also contains works by numerous acclaimed international artists from Augustin Gardenas to Victor Vasarely and Alberto Viani, its principal significance stems from the personal vision that emphasises 20th century Finnish art strongly influenced by international art movements. Ernst Mether-Borgström, Lars-Gunnar Nordström, Harry Kivijärvi, Unto Pusa, Kain Tapper and Sam Vanni are among the central artists represented in the collection, together with Tor Arne and Carolus Enckell. The Maire Gullichsen Art Foundation's collection, together with the legacy of Maire Gullichsen and her life's work, is the foundation on which the current exhibition and research activities of the Pori Art Museum, with their emphasis on contemporary art, is based.
The oldest works in the Pori Municipal Collection go back almost two centuries. The seven paintings by Alexander Lauréus from the early 19th century lend an art-historical weight to the collection, together with works by such names as Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Victor Westerholm and Berndt Lindholm. The main focus of the collection, however, is on 20th century art, and the closer we come to the present, the more diverse and systematic the collection becomes in its exploration of the broad, self-reflexive field of contemporary art. Conventional approaches and media are today complemented by new issues and questions, mundane materials, the environment and nature as a whole, as exemplified by Ossi Somma's piece Optimistic Nature with its car chassis and pine trees situated in the yard of the Penttilä School in Nokia. The work belongs to the Pori Municipal Collection. At the other extreme, works in the collection make use of the latest media in art, such as Marita Liulia's multimedia work based on CD-ROM technology. In between the extremes, there are a great number of interesting artists, each with his or her own idiom, style and technique. Since the founding of the Pori Art Museum, its collections have grown with works by many notable international artists, including Per Barclay (Norway), José Bedia (Cuba), Harry Callahan (USA), Sigurdur Gudmundsson (Iceland), Ian McKeever (Britain), Leonhard Lapin (Estonia), Yan Pei Ming (China), Georges Rousse (France), Yoko Ono (USA), Dennis Oppenheim (USA) and Marta Maria Pérez (Cuba). In line with the objectives of the museum's exhibition strategy, the works represent the expanding field of the visual arts from traditional painting to photography, Fluxus and installations. Some of the works were created during the preparation of exhibitions held in Pori: Per Barclay's photograph shows the oil room in the Hotel Otava, Yan Pei Ming hung his paintings made in the Pori Art School in a show called Out of the Centre, and Georges Rousse found just the right space in the Pori Cotton Factory for the production of his large photographs. The public has an opportunity to see the works not only in exhibitions presenting the collections of the Pori Art Museum, but also in the city's administrative premises; works by some of the artists listed above are hung in the Pori Town Hall, for instance.
Art from western Finland and from the Satakunta region has occupied an important place in the Pori Municipal Collection since its establishment. Major names from the region in the collection are the painters and graphic artists Anja Karkku-Hohti, Ensio Lamberg, Sinikka Räike, Erik Sermala, Juhani Tarna and Immo Tuominen, as well as the sculptors Pertti Mäkinen, Reijo Paavilainen and Professor Kauko Räike. Some of them have also had a long career teaching in the Kankaanpää Art School and the Pori Art School. The younger generation of artists represented in the collection include Kaisu Koivisto, nominated Young Artist of the Year in 1996, Henry Merimaa, Esko Railo, Veijo Setälä and Pasi Tammi, as well as many artists as well as many artists who are graduates of the Pori Art School. One special part of the collection consists of works by artists close to the heart of people living in Pori, from Aarne Elomaa to Olavi Jalkanen and Oiva Virta.
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