New Exhibition Shows Unseen Works by Moomins Creator Tove Jansson

The Houses of Tove Jansson exhibition includes works that have not been publicly on display before including a number of her Moomin sketches.

“Tove Jansson lived an unconventional life and this is an unconventional exhibition," said James Zambra,  creative director at Moomin Characters and part of the third generation of the Jansson family to work at the company. "The exhibition is mounted in the Espace Mont-Louis, a former print shop, instead of a museum or gallery. It will feature both a wide array of Tove Jansson’s important works as well as works by contemporary artists inspired by Tove’s life. The exhibition will also feature programming, a reading room and capsule collections created exclusively for this exhibition. It’s an attempt to bring the breadth of Tove’s creative output to new audiences and longtime admirers.” 

Opening in Paris, the exhibition takes place in a city that played an important role throughout Jansson’s life. It was the city where her parents met when both studied art and Tove continued in their footsteps, studying art at École des Beaux-Arts and L’Atélier Holy. She travelled there repeatedly in her youth as a young art student and later with her life partner Tuulikki Pietilä who had several residencies and worked there for months at a time. 

The venue of the free exhibition is in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. Filled with art and objects from the artist’s studio, it will focus on various themes that were central to Jansson’s life and artistic output starting with the early development of Jansson’s visual language and narrative style. It will bring together key works of her career, including a selection of her paintings, drawings, illustrations, and texts,.

Houses of Tove opens in Paris on September 29 during Paris Fashion Week running through October 29.