Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck’s first solo show which has been a featured exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is suffused with a melancholic quietude, while possessing an unexpected spirit of strength. MET Curator Dita Amory will introduce the artist to us, showing her modernist language of the brush and pivotal passages of her life. Ms. Amory’s slide presentation glimpses Schjerfbeck’s isolation and interiority through the artist’s intimate use of light, space, and volume.
Discussant Ernesto Mujica will examine how Schjerfbeck’s vision became increasingly subjective over time, revealing a more intimate experience of the subject, a process that he finds evocative of the therapist’s initial perception of the patient and what is gradually revealed during their work together.
For those who can visit the exhibit in advance, it is at the MET through April 5, 2026.
ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS
Dita Amory, MA, is the Robert Lehman Curator in Charge of the Robert Lehman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her numerous exhibitions include Pierre Bonnard: The Late Still Lifes and Interiors (2009); Madame Cezanne (2014-15); Leonardo to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Robert Lehman Collection (2017-18); Felix Vollotton (2019-20); Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism (2023). She is a trustee of the Robert Lehman Foundation and serves on several non-profit Boards.
Ernesto Mujica, PhD, is Director of the Sexual Abuse Study Group and Service at WAWI, where he also serves as an Associate Editor of the institute’s journal, Contemporary Psychoanalysis. Dr. Mujica is a supervisor of psychotherapy at the Institute, and also in the doctoral program of Clinical Psychology of Teachers College, Columbia University. He integrates his clinical work in the areas of childhood and adult trauma, as well sociocultural factors in mental health, with his strong interest in the arts. Dr. Mujica has previously spoken at the Artists Study Group including discussions about artists El Anatsui (Ghana & Nigeria), Kent Monkman (First Nations-Cree, Canada), Yayoi Kusama (Japan) and Reversos, El Prado exhibition, (Madrid, Spain).
Join us for this discussion, looking at the nuances of artistic evolution!