Forthcoming articles

* "Meeting Old Friends & Colleagues, Collectors and Dealers: Osvald Sirén’s German Contacts in Berlin 1927," forthcoming in 2012 in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift

* "Osvald Sirén as collector of Chinese art," forthcoming in 2012 in Art and Collection Monthly (Diancang): the focus of the article is Sirén and his role and activities as a collector of Chinese art.

In addition to acquiring East Asian art for the museum in Stockholm, he acted as an advisor for the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 1930s. Between 1918 and 1935 he travelled extensively in East Asia and though the focus of these journeys was an research, visits to both Western, Japanese and Chinese dealers in major cities were an integral part of the programme. He also acted as an advisor for dealers and private collectors and amassed a collection of Chinese art for his own pleasure.

* "In Search of Paradise Lost: Osvald Sirén's Scholarship on Garden Art," forthcoming in 2013 in The Reception of Chinese Art across Cultures, ed. by Michelle Huang and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing: The article discusses Sirén's views on garden art as they are manifested in his scholarly studies such as Gardens of China (1948) and China and the Gardens of Eighteenth Century Europe (1950); both works are pivotal in the history of western perceptions on East Asian gardens and the relationship between China and Europe; in addition, among Sirén's scholarship the volumes mark his recent retirement and manifest a remembrance of things past, albeit in different ways.

Theosophy and the Arts

Enchanting Modernity: Theosophy and the Arts in the Making of Early Twentieth-Century Culture

Liverpool Hope University

3 Dec 2010

> "In Search of Images of Religious Purity: Osvald Sirén and the Allure of Chinese Art"

paper by Dr. Minna Törmä

This paper takes a look on Osvald Sirén (1879–1966) and the way theosophy played a role in both his professional and personal life. He was internationally known historian of Italian painting and pioneering scholar of Chinese art in the West; he was institutionally placed in Stockholm, first as Professor of Art History in the University of Stockholm (1908–1923) and then as curator of the Department of Painting and Sculpture in the Nationalmuseum (1926–1944).

Theosophy played an important role in Sirén’s life, it was the basis of his world view, and he had published articles on various topics in Swedish journal Theosophia since 1900, then in 1912 appeared his first article in the English periodical The Theosophical Path, after he had visited Point Loma in California, the Theosophical Headquarters and Katherine Tingley (1847–1929), in 1911.

Historically speaking, the movement has promoted in a significant degree the knowledge of Asian cultures by popularizing Oriental religions. On the other hand, because they had a tendency to mystify matters, they sometimes went from one extreme to the other: instead of scorn, the East was seen as a paradise veiled in secrecy. Sirén himself saw that spreading knowledge of particularly East Asian art, would help a return to spiritual values which were lost in the surge of materialism.

Research II: Ten Kings of Purgatory

Detail from a painting in the series Ten Kings of Purgatory from Mirrors of the Void: Buddhist Art in the National Museum of Finland by Harry Halén (1987)

This project takes as its starting point five paintings from a series of ten, representing the theme Ten Kings of Purgatory, which are in the collection of the Museum of Cultures, in Helsinki.

Both Buddhists and Daoists imagined that on death the human being would be transported to a kind of purgatory to meet the judges or kings of that realm. According to most common beliefs there were either 10 or 18 of these kings, who in their outside appearance resembled Chinese officials and in many ways the journey through purgatory was reminiscent of bureaucracy of the real world. The journey in its entirety lasted three years and began on the 7th day after death in the court of the first king, Qingguangwang. In his presence the virtuous were differentiated from the evil ones: the virtuous could expect an immediate rebirth and the evil ones a long and torturous journey through the other nine courts. The last king would then designate their fate after three years, whether one would be reborn as a divinity, a human being, an animal, a hungry ghost or be dwelling in hell for eternity.

The theme has been part of visual arts since the Song dynasty (960–1279), but its iconography has not in spite of this long history been established. One of my aims is to research which five of the ten courts are represented in the series in the Museum of Cultures.

Garden as a Refuge.

Osvald Sirén’s reminiscences and appropriations of Chinese garden art

paper by Minna Törmä, Annual Meeting of British Association of Chinese Studies, Bristol, September 8-9, 2010

This paper discusses Osvald Sirén’s (1879–1966) views on Chinese garden art, as they are manifested both in his scholarly studies such as Gardens of China (1948) and in his garden practice. During the World War II, when Sirén lived isolated in Sweden, he sought refuge in memories of his wanderings in Chinese and Japanese gardens. With the aid of the photographs he had taken on his travels, the earliest ones dating to 1918, he recalled his experiences and complemented the research by looking at Chinese paintings, reading Chinese poetry and translating Ji Cheng’s Yuanye or ”Craft of Gardens.” These provided him a vehicle for his woyou or ”travelling while lying down” and an escape of the grim reality of the times.

If the first part of the paper focuses on the role of memories in Sirén’s research, the second part investigates his manner of applying ideas formed on the basis of his knowledge of East Asian gardens to his own garden in Lidingö, outside Stockholm (photo by Sirén, from an album in Art History Library, University of Helsinki). His garden practice, however, was not limited only to his own garden; in addition he assisted Cyrillus Johansson (1884–1959), Swedish architect, in designing a garden around his villa. In these two gardens Sirén was creating his own interpretations of orientalism, which will be investigated in the light of his knowledege of 18th century views on Chinese gardens and European adaptations of them, as presented in his China and the Gardens of Eighteenth Century Europe (1950).

FORTHCOMING 2010: Nichibunken, Kyoto

Shizilin (Lion Grove Garden, Suzhou), the rockery under construction in early 1920s, photographed by Sirén (photo in the Siren Archive, Museum of Far eastern Antiquities, Stockholm)

> Nichibunken, Kyoto, November 2010

Questioning Oriental Aesthetics and Thinking: Conflicting Visions of ”Asia” under the Colonial Empires

Osvald Sirén’s Encounter with the Arts of China and Japan

> session: Western Rediscoveries of Oriental Culture: Materiality and Spirituality

Minna Törmä

My paper focuses on two early texts by Finnish-Swedish art historian Osvald Sirén (1879–1966), Rytm och form (”Rhythm and Form”, 1917) and Den Gyllene Paviljongen (”The Golden Pavilion”, 1919). Partial translations of these texts have appeared in English; however, they are generally not well known. Yet these two books reveal his enchantment and appreaciation of the arts of China and Japan, respectively, and the initial discoveries that lay at the base of his later scholarship on the arts of China. Sirén, an ardent theosophist throughout his life, was always in search of the spiritual values in art, whether in sculpture, painting, architecture or garden art. These spiritual values were manifested not only in works born under the aegis of Buddhism or Daoism – Sirén particlulary appreciated Chan Buddhist painting – but in landscape paintings or the rock formations of East Asian gardens.

CAA 2010

Didrichsen Museum of Art and Culture, Helsinki: view of the China room with an exhibition case containing some objects which originally belonged to Sirén's personal collection (photo: Minna Törmä)

Panel: Roles of Acquistion

CAA Chicago Feb. 12, 2010

”Playing All the Roles: Osvald Sirén as Curator, Collector, Dealer and Art Historian”

Dr. Minna Törmä

Adjunct Professor of Art History, University of Helsinki

Lecturer/Tutor, Christie’s Education

This paper focuses on the combined roles of curator/collector/dealer/art historian and examines this phenomenon through the career of Osvald Sirén (1879–1966). These roles are fraught with conflicts of interest, yet it was not uncommon for one person to be active in all these roles during the early part of the twentieth century.

The research presented in this paper is based on previously unpublished archival material (letters, notebooks and invoices), most of which is in the Sirén Archive of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. The issues discussed briefly here today will be treated more comprehensively in my forthcoming publication: New Horizons in East Asia: Osvald Sirén’s Encounter with Chinese Art.

Osvald Sirén was internationally known historian of Italian painting and pioneering scholar of Chinese art in the West. Though he was institutionally attached to Stockholm, first as Professor of Art History in the University of Stockholm (1908–1923) and then as curator of the Department of Painting and Sculpture in the Nationalmuseum (1926–1944), he was associated with collectors and museums in both Europe and the United States. In addition to acquiring art for the museum in Stockholm, he acted as an advisor for the Honolulu Academy of Arts in the 1930s.

Besides buying from the well-known dealers such as Yamanaka and C.T. Loo, Sirén travelled in East Asia in 1918, 1921–1923, 1929–1930 and 1935. Though the focus on these journeys was on research, the visits to both Western, Japanese and Chinese dealers of antiquities, for example Otto Burchard, and curio-dealers in major cities were an integral part of the programme. While making acquisitions of paintings and sculpture on the behalf of the Nationalmuseum, he bought small objects and paintings for his own collection. His personal collection was not stable, instead, he would sell objects from it in order to fund his research and travel in East Asia, and doing so acted as a dealer himself.

First International Contemporary Chinese Art Forum

Visits to the studios of Chinese contemporary artists, May 2009: Xu Longsen, Zhan Wang, Xu Bing (from top to bottom; photos: Minna Törmä

International Conference on Art Theory and Criticism

Beijing University

May 26-30, 2009

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS OF CHINESE ART:

the choices of western academics and collectors in the early 20th century

The focus in this paper is on western perceptions on Chinese painting, though other art works will be discussed briefly (when appropriate) and temporally this covers from ca. 1900 to early 1960s. The emphasis will be on the texts by western writings, but collectors come into the picture as well, since collecting and research were in many instances entangled with each other (though there are exceptions). Besides, the same person could take up the roles of curator/collector/dealer/art historian.