Visual arts | The Russian Embassy in Finland sent Ateneum: “Ilja Repin is a great Russian artist”

Russian On Thursday, the Embassy of Finland commented strongly on the Ateneum Art Museum's decision to present the artist in the future Ilya Repin (1844–1930) as a Ukrainian.

“We were surprised to learn that the Helsinki Ateneum Art Museum has decided to present the great Russian artist Ilya Repin as a 'Ukrainian' from now on only on the basis that he was born in an area that Ukraine now claims as its own,” the mission's website reads.

According to the embassy, ​​the action is “against common sense”.

In the background is published by Suomen Kuvalehti on January 21 articleaccording to which the Ateneum will present Repin as Ukrainian in the future due to new information received by the museum.

In 2023, a Ukrainian reporter Anna Lodygina found out from church documents that the artist's father and grandfather were born in what is now Ukraine.

The decision to change was made when Ateneum was preparing its A Question of Time exhibition, which includes one of Repin's works.

Repin's work is also on display in the museum's permanent exhibition, in which the artist will be presented as a Ukrainian in the caption, Suomen Kuvalehti writes.

Athenaeum organized an extensive Repin exhibition in 2021 in cooperation with the Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum of Russian Art. At that time, Repin was said to have been born in what is now Ukraine, but he was presented as Russian.

According to the embassy, ​​that is what makes the matter “particularly surprising.”

“At that time, Finnish art experts had no doubt about the master's nationality,” the embassy's press release reads.

According to the embassy, ​​it is about “actions dictated by Russophobia and the political situation” and “the spirit of cancel culture directed at Russian culture”.

Finland According to Kuvalehti, Repin is just one of many Ukrainian artists that Russia considers its own.

Also in other museums of the world, the backgrounds of artists considered to be Russian are now being re-evaluated because of the Russian war of aggression.

Ilya Repin was born in Chuhujiv, Kharkiv, in what is now Ukraine, and spent part of his life there.

He studied and made the main works of
his production in Russia. Repin lived for about 30 years in Finland and also died in Kuokkala, Terijoki. The Russian name of the locality is currently Repino.