Poetry of Matter – Eila Hiltunen 100 years

The exhibition has ended. Thank you to all almost 30 000 visitors!

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In the words of Eila Hiltunen, a sculptor is a poet of matter. At the heart of a sculptor’s art are the nature and properties of the material as well as the possibilities offered by the technique used.
 

One of the most international artists of her generation, Eila Hiltunen was born one hundred years ago on 22 November 2022. The centenary exhibition organized by the artist’s estate and the Didrichsen Art Museum covers Hiltunen’s artistic career from its beginnings in the 1940s all the way to its end.

Eila Hiltunen constantly developed her artistic expression. The exhibition features an extensive selection of Hiltunen’s early bronze sculptures, cubism-influenced sculptures from the 1950s, and later, open-form abstract pieces that have been worked directly into metal. Hiltunen incorporated welding into her work from the mid-1950s onwards – the resulting works represent the most characteristic artistic legacy of the sculptor.
 

Hiltunen saw herself above all as a creator of monuments: the monumental projects – both completed and unrealized – that kept the artist busy are presented through drafts and images. The themes central to Hiltunen’s artistry included a sense of movement as well as shapes of growth and flourishing that can be traced back to nature.
 

The founders of the Didrichsen Art Museum, Gunnar and Marie-Louise Didrichsen, became acquainted with Eila Hiltunen in the 1960s, and many works by the artist were acquired to the museum collections. In addition to those, many works in the exhibition – sculptures, medals, and jewellery – are on loan from Finnish museums, foundations and private collections.

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Link to the podcast episode Composing a sculpture -- Eila Hiltunen and the Sibelius Monument