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LONDON, May 15, 2014 -- /EPR NETWORK/ -- To coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Tove Jansson, the Finnish author who created the much-loved Moomin series of books, the ICA will host an exhibition in the Fox Reading Room presenting original unseen photographs and material relating to her life and work, illustrated books and early first editions from 15th July to 24th August. The ICA is one of London's finest alternative arts spaces, featuring cinemas, a theatre, art gallery and book shop, as well as a great café, all within a short distance of Green Park and Trafalgar Square. For more on this and other London events being held at the ICA, see LondonTown.com, London's best website for tourists hoping to get the most out of the city.
Tove Jansson was born on 9 August 1914 in Helsinki and grew up in an artist family. She studied art in Stockholm and Helsinki, and she also sought inspiration from Paris and Italy. In the late summer of 1944, Jansson rented an attic studio in the centre of the Helsinki at Ullanlinnankatu 1. The studio became her cherished home where she lived and worked in the autumn and winter. Summers were spent on the tiny island of Klovharu in the Gulf of Finland. Jansson loved the sea and the archipelago, and then retried to her studio in the heart of Helsinki where she created her most renowned paintings and texts. It was here that Jansson finished her first book featuring Moomintroll. The first book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, appeared in 1945, though it was the next two books, Comet in Moominland and Finn Family Moomintroll, published in 1946 and 1948 respectively, that brought her fame.
The ICA exhibition will feature her books and also copies of her illustrations for the London Evening News. Tove Jansson: Tales From the Archipelago draws an intimate portrait of the artist's life on her private island in the archipelago of Finland, where she regularly spent the summer months with her female companion Tuulikki Pietilä and at her artist studio in Helsinki. Shot over a period of 60 years by her dear friend, renowned Finnish photographer C-G Hagström (b. 1940) and her brother, photographer, Per Olov Jansson (b. 1920), rare family photographs reveal a story of an extraordinary life. The exhibition will be curated by Susanna Pettersson, Director, and Animaya Grant, Head of Events at the Finnish Institute in London, with the ICA. The exhibition is supported by the Finnish Institute in London
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