The Age of the Pure Palette

But no sooner had the Finns become assured that their art possessed originality and high quality than new movements began to effect sharp changes in European art. The beginning of the 20th century was a period of great change. Much of what had just been born aged rapidly. The French Expressionists, the Fauves caused indignation and more changes were brought about by the Cubists. The traditional values of artistic beauty received a new meaning.

Finnish artists, who basked in the success brought by the Paris World Fair, kept aloof from these new continental movements in art. The same people who had contributed to the strength and success of the country's cultural life were at the head of its artistic administration and leadership. They had no reason to change course. All was well.

All the greater the disappointment when Finland eight years after the 1900 Paris World Fair again displayed its best in Paris. The reviews were not totally censorious, but something worse: only politely interested. The reception was completely lacking in the enthusiasm that optimistically was expected to reccur. French reviewers looked askance at the solemnity, literalness, darkness and cheerlesness of Finnish art. Where the French themselves exploded colours and forms the Finns pondered and recorded, ernestly, sincerely, quite unstirred by what was happening.

The reaction to the exhibition caused Finnish artists to reassess the situation. The architects Sigurd Frosterus and Gustaf Strengell emerged as prophets of the new age with international contacts and colour theories as their solution. The colours of the rainbow, a pure palette, a knowledge of colour theories and their bold application - the new age would one day dawn in Finland also. All the work and emphasis on national idiosyncrasies, which had only a while ago been the paramount duty of art, would have to be swept aside. Now one was to utilize the universal principles of the new art.

The Age of the Pure Palette