FNG Research is the open-access web magazine of the Finnish National Gallery for art museum and art history professionals internationally.

As the Ateneum Art Museum’s Director Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff notes in the Editorial, Finnish art is now more internationally visible than ever, and this issue of FNG Research addresses this by exploring artistic practice from new perspectives that emphasise context and dialogue.

Paper conservator Ilona Osara provides a step-by-step account of the conservation of Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s fresco sketches created for the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. Satu Oksanen, curator of Kiasma’s new collection exhibition, discusses the exhibition’s concept, while Riitta Ojanperä, curator of the recently opened Eero Nelimarkka exhibition at the Ateneum, focuses on Nelimarkka’s career. In her article, Hanne Selkokari examines the renewed appreciation of Fanny Churberg’s artistic work. We also publish the lectio praecursoria from Ateneum chief curator Timo Huusko’s doctoral dissertation and a report by chief curator Marja Lahelma on a seminar held at the Ateneum on the life’s work of art historian Salme Sarajas-Korte. In addition, the issue features an interview with Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff, written by Gill Crabbe, on the Ateneum’s collaborations in New York and Paris. We also announce the names and research topics of the research interns selected for the Finnish National Gallery for 2026.

Contents:

ANNA-MARIA VON BONSDORFF: Editorial: Redefining ‘the Artist’ through New Narratives

ILONA OSARA: Conservation of Four Sketches, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, for the Frescoes at the Finnish Pavilion at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair

SATU OKSANEN: The Collection Exhibition as Fantasy

HANNE SELKOKARI: The Renaissance of Fanny Churberg’s Art and Artistry

RIITTA OJANPERÄ: Eero Nelimarkka – The City-dweller from Southern Ostrobothnia

TIMO HUUSKO: Longing for Originality and the Fear of Primitiveness: People, Nature and Racialisation in Finnish Modern Art, 1915–1930

GILL CRABBE: Going Global – Pekka Halonen and Helene Schjerfbeck Step into the Limelight

MARJA LAHELMA: Art History as Thought and Conviction: The Living Legacy of Salme Sarajas-Korte

RESEARCH INTERNS SELECTED BY THE FINNISH NATIONAL GALLERY FOR 2026