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Museum of Fine Arts of Karelia

Opening hours: 10:00AM — 6:00PM
Thursday: 12:00AM — 8:00PM
Monday: closed

KARELIAN ART OF XX CENTURY

The collection of fine arts of Karelia of 20 century has about 3 thousand works and includes paintings, sculptures and graphic works, decorative and applied art, as well as theater decorative art. It reflects the historic way of development of fine arts of Karelia.  The Fine Arts Museum of Karelia has collected and scientifically researched unique collections that provide understanding of the national and artistic traditions of the region.

The collection is put together according to the monographic principle and rather fully reflects the work of many outstanding artists of Karelia. For the history of Karelian art, the works of V.N. Popov (1869-1945) and A. Andrianov (1888-1933) are of great value, since they were the ones who in 1920 – 30s did very much for educating the local artistic people.

A very special part of the museum collection is made up by works of the most prominent master of landscape painting – S.H. Yuntunen (1915-1980), which became classical examples of painting. The painting section also presents works of F.E. Nieminen (1931-2011), the famous portrait painter of Karelia, E.K. Pekhova (1928-2003), a very original painter, who created a gallery of portraits of creative intellectuals, B.N. Pomortsev (born 1932) – the master of lyrical landscape, M.S. Yufa  – the painter of bright, emphatic pictures and unsurpassed master of still life.

The real treasure of the collection are the works of V.S. Chekmasov (born 1940), A. Trifonov (born 1965), A. Morozov (born 1950), and many other artists. In general, the art of Karelia is developing in the mainstream of trends typical for Russian art, but preserves some national originality and a special northern touch.

Karelian graphic art is the largest part of the collection, which includes about 2 thousand works. Here you can find works of Z.E. Lvovich (1910-1965) the founder of Karelian etching, A.I. Avdyshev, the great master of lino-print (1928-1997), G.A. Stronk (1910-2005), the virtuoso of graphic art, T.G. Yufa (born 1937), who created unique images of the northern epic poem “Kalevala”.

The collection has extended and wide representation of works of A.P. Kharitonov (1940-1993) and O.S. Yuntunen (1948-2005), whose work was distinguished by the highest culture and mastery of execution.

Sculpture is represented first of all by the works of Leo Lankinen, V. Afanasiev, E. Akulov, L. Davidyan, G. Lankinen and also by the works of M. Koppalev. Mostly these are works executed in the portrait genre and composition sculpture of small forms.

The Karelian fine arts collection of 20 century is one of the most precious in the Museum. It provides a complete and diverse picture of artistic life and acquaints us with the best works of Karelian masters

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