Nordic Women Painting Race and Place

During the turbulent period of 1880 to 1920 Finland, Helsinki was a multiethnic center of many cultures. Despite nascent Finnish nationalism, Helsinki’s transient community provided a rich backdrop for intercultural exchange and diversity.

As part of ASF’s lecture series for Independent Visions, Helene Schjerfbeck and Her Contemporaries from the Collection of Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, art historian Bart Pushaw will discuss the intersection of gender, identity, and international influence as expressed in the work of Helene Schjerfbeck, Ellen Thesleff, Sigrid Schauman and Elga Sesemann.

Pushaw will examine the ways in which these female artists working professionally at the turn of the 20th century participated in, and were influenced by, various forms of cultural confluence. A former Fulbright scholar, current ASF fellowship recipient, and PhD candidate at the University of Maryland, Pushaw has curated extensively in the Nordic and Baltic countries and published widely on the subject of Modernism in the region.