Oulu Art Museum is a regional museum of responsibility of Northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu , which is part of the museum and scientific center of Lupia . The museum is located in the Mullutull district of Oulu, near Hupisaari . Founded in 1963, the museum operated in a temporary room until 1990, when the museum moved into an old industrial building. The museum mainly specializes in contemporary art, and its collection includes works of art, in particular from Oulu and Northern Ostrobothnia.
The Art Museum was built in Oulu for a long time, and it was actively managed, including the artist Pentti Koivisto . The museum was founded in 1963. His first collection contained 37 works of art.
The first premises were located in the Triangle House, where the museum was opened to the public on October 12, 1963. The museum also worked in other temporary premises on Asemakatu before he could move to his own office building in Mullutulli. The industrial building, vacated by the University of Oulu Library in 1987, was converted into a museum building. The Council of Fine Arts would like to build a new building on Wenmann Island next to the theater and the city library. The new building of the Art Museum was opened in May 1990.
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the museum on October 5, 2013 in the Art Museum opened the exhibition "Ajantaju", which is a kind of cut of the collection of the Oulu Art Museum. In the same year, the Art Museum, the Museum of Northern Ostrobothnia and the Tietomaa Science Center merged into a new museum and science center, Luupi, the construction of which took more than a year. The merger has drawn criticism in art circles, and in June 2014, a number of influential figures in the field of art, including Mystery Mullouharju, former director of the Oulu Art Museum, wrote a statement about the new line of the art museum. According to the statement, art lags behind science in the new whole.
The old Red Brick Art Museum building was originally built as a glue factory Veljekset Åström Oy and then used as an office. The building was designed in 1921 by architect Birger Federli. From 1964 to 1987, the building housed a university library. Architects Jorma Teppo and Henry Metsy from Oulu completed the extension and reconstruction work. The building was renovated during 2008, when Kulttuuritalo Valve was home to the art museum and museum store Ainoa. During the renovation, the museum's lighting was completely renewed, electricity, heating and air conditioning technology was modernized, and the water roof was rebuilt. In addition, the Tasku hall for the presentation of audiovisual works was built. The museum was opened on February 7, 2009.
Art Museum Oulu - one of the largest regional museums in Finland by number of employees and exhibition space. The museum has 1100 square meters of exhibition space. The museum specializes in contemporary art, but older art is also purchased for the museum if the work or artist occupies an important place in general. In addition to Finnish contemporary art, the museum's collections include 20th century art from northern Finland and, among other things, the collection of naive art Heinänen Art Foundation . The museum is particularly focused on the art of Oulu and Northern Ostrobothnia, although works are also purchased throughout Finland.
The first acquisition of the art museum was a picture of the Liminsky artist Wilho Lampi 1935 with the image of the grave of his mother. The oldest works in the collection are the paintings of the von Wright brothers with the image of Oulu, the paintings of Amelie Lundal and the blacksmiths Juho Rissanen 1905.
The productions of outstanding local artists such as Paavo Leinonen, Juho Mäkel, Oke Mattas, Eero Snelman, Werner Ostrom, Aukusti and Pentti Koivisto, Alex Rapp and Olli Seppänen have been performed for decades. According to the report of the national art collection project, the museum's collection is a complex section of works by many contemporary artists and provides a representative picture of the state of contemporary art. The museum also has a significant collection of self-portraits of the artists, and a book about the collections was published in the collections of the Oulu Art Museum. As of the end of 2013, the museum had 4 128 works in its collection.
In addition to exhibition activities, the mission of the Oulu Art Museum is to promote art research and art education in its field, and to act as an expert assistant to the city's cultural events. The museum features changing exhibitions of domestic and foreign art. Exhibitions also include public lectures, master classes and presentations. Museum services also include advisory and information services on art history, art education and public excursions. In addition, the Museum of Art publishes books on art history. On the street level of the Oulu Art Museum, there is the Ainoa Museum Store, which offers various items, gifts and art objects.
In addition, the Oulu Art Museum publishes a gallery of self-portraits, a website dedicated to public outdoor sculptures in Oulu, a website dedicated to the life and art of the artist Wilho Lammi, and the Percent Art Gallery, on its websites representing Oulu art.