What do we see when we look at something? What are we really looking at? And how is the object of our gaze presented?

The book forms an accompaniment to The Girl Who Turned into a Rosebush, an exhibition examining practices of seeing and presenting. It features from the Leonard and Katarina Bäcksbacka Collection - the core of the HAM collection - alongside newer HAM -owned pieces and selected works of contemporary art.

The curator and author of this book, Asta Kihlman, PhD, juxtaposes new and old iconography as a way of comparing and contrasting, pulling together thematic threads in a mutually enlightening dialogue. The works are presented under five themes: Gaze, Body, Habitus, The Intimate, and Still Life & Landscape. Through close reading, Kihlman draws attention to details that might initially seem irrelevant, but which can lead to intriguing new interpretations.

This publication (2024) is fourth in a series dedicated to artists from the Bäcksbacka collections who have been presented in exhibitios at HAM. The previous volumes featured Ellen Thesleff (2019), Gräta Hällfors-Sililä and Sulho Sipilä (2021) and Viggo Wallensköld (2022).

Näyttely: Tyttö joka muuttui ruusupensaaksi, HAM Helsingin taidemuseossa 9.2.-29.9.2024.