Past

This exhibition offers speculation on the spaces, objects and images that the Estonian middle class have chosen to surround themselves with and through which they have defined themselves.

Jevgeni Zolotko (b. 1983) is one of the most original Estonian contemporary artists. The exhibition showcases the artist’s recent works. It also features some brand new works created specifically for the exhibition.

The Kumu project space features seven paintings by Leonora Carrington from her Mexican period, which are characterised by her unique style and fanciful, symbolic imagery.

This is the first major exhibition of Latin American art in Estonia, featuring art from the Spanish Colonial period, as well as works by 20th-century artists from Uruguay, Peru, Chile, Mexico and Cuba.

This contemporary art exhibition invites viewers to consider issues related to mental health and well-being. How can we maintain a comfortable balance between joy and sorrow, work and leisure? Why do things sometimes get out of balance?

The exhibition introduces members of the Kügelgen family, who played a significant role in the cultural history of Estonia. The display includes works of art created by the Kügelgens and everyday objects associated with the family. The majority of the exhibits belong to the private collection of the Kügelgen family. Tallinn is the third city, after Lüneburg and Dresden, where this exhibition has been held.

In Livonia, just like in the rest of Europe, pilgrimages formed an intrinsic part of medieval life. This exhibition, which provides an overview of the phenomenon, is the first opportunity for the public to see the majority of currently known Estonian and Latvian material artefacts, as well as the textual and artistic legacy, of Livonian pilgrimages.

The exhibition brings together the works of Elisàr von Kupffer (1872–1942), an artist with a Baltic-German background, and of the Estonian artist Jaanus Samma (1982).

The exhibition combines Jaan Toomik’s video installation Waterfall (2005) with Baltic German artists’ 19th-century Romantic landscape paintings.

The exhibition is dedicated to the depiction of Spain and includes romantic views of Spain, as well as masterpieces by the grand masters of Modernism. Buoyant and sunny, or dark and tragic, the “whiteness” and “blackness” of the quintessence of Spain are revealed through magnificent works of art.

This exhibition explores how Estonian artists have portrayed sex work, how their works reflect the attitudes of society, and whether these representations may have contributed to shaping these attitudes.

The exhibition brings together three different, yet equally sensitive artistic visions. Their photographic series exemplify how the camera may amplify the distance from the surrounding environment, lend voices to stones, plants and water, and make the intrinsic interlacing of natural and artificial environments visible.

The exhibition focuses on the dialogue that emerged between the Italian Transavantgarde movement and the Estonian artists who founded the group Rühm T in the mid-1980s. At the core of this dialogue are opposition and the art of painting.

melanie bonajo’s exhibition is a research into the current status of intimacy in our increasingly alienating, commodity-driven world.

US cultural historian R. Paul Firnhaber, stands out among Estonia-based collectors with his unique collection of art and photography. This exhibition presents part of this collection: caricatures and cartoons by Honoré Daumier.

Konrad Mägi in Close-up is based on Darja Jefimova’s master’s thesis, which includes documentation on approximately thirty Konrad Mägi paintings and which she defended at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2023.

With the help of contemporary artists and a selection of artworks from the museum’s collection of old masters, the exhibition seeks to rethink the boundaries between culture and nature, addressing the themes of biodiversity, ecosystem interdependence, eco-anxiety and sustainability.

The exhibition focuses on the work of the Baltic artists Malle Leis, Maija Tabaka and Marija Teresė Rožanskaitė in the late Soviet context of the 1970s and 1980s.

The solo exhibition of the metal artist Urve Küttner (b. 1941) looks at the artist’s creative explorations for over five decades. An artist with a remarkably wide range of interests, Küttner has worked with various styles, materials and techniques.

The exhibition brings together two masterpieces of the Late Middle Ages: the Passion Altarpiece in Tallinn and the Holy Kinship Altarpiece from Bollnäs in Sweden.

The exhibition offers a contemporary perspective on the work of Estonian women printmakers in the 1960s and 1980s.

The art collection of Tiit Pruuli, a passionate sailor and globetrotter, focuses on classic seascapes and the relationship between the sea and people. This is the first time that the collection has been introduced to a wider audience. The exhibition explores marine art in Estonia from the late 19th century until the present.

The exhibition offers an eco-critical perspective on Estonian art history and contemporary art. Is art necessary, or even possible, in the era of environmental crises?

The painter Tõnis Saadoja’s solo exhibition Height Above Sea Level is part of the museum’s environmental programme Art in the Age of the Anthropocene in summer 2023.

A revealing insight into radical dreams of Ukrainian avant-garde art that aspired to modernise society.

The exhibition includes forest and nature landscapes, as well as 20th-century animal sculptures, by Leili Muuga, Enn Põldroos, Olga Terri, Olav Maran and several other Estonian artists.

Finnish Modernism combines an Expressionist painting style with decorative explorations of colour. The exhibition showcases an array of works by renowned Finnish Modernist artists from the Art Museum of Estonia and Finnish museums, as well as private collections.

teamLab is a manifestation of an art movement that celebrates early 21st century technology and its potential to create harmony between the human body and mind, and between man and nature.

The exhibition at the Mikkel Museum shows the part of Rubinstein’s collection inherited by Yakov Rubinstein’s granddaughter Tanya Rubinstein-Horowitz.

This exhibition features one of the most exciting art collections in the Baltic states today, focusing on Central and Eastern European contemporary art.

Mahukas Konrad Mägi (1878–1925) retrospektiivnäitus Norras Lillehammeri Kunstimuuseumis.

This project space examines the mutual influences of geology and landscape painting.

This exhibition centres on the entanglements and interactions between art and science in the past and in the present.

This exhibition presents a fascinating story of the handbag over the last 100 years, highlighting the impact of pop culture and celebrities on handbag trends and styles.

This exhibition explores the numerous art purchases of the Baltic German nobleman Wilhelm von Blanckenhagen (1761–1840) and his relations with the international art community of Rome, one of the most important art centres in Europe. Among the artworks he brought to Livonia were those by leading artists of the German Romantic movement.

This interactive exhibition project invites people to contribute to the multilayered historical memories of Estonia by identifying and sharing stories of people who they recognise in the exhibited photographs.

This work by the multidisciplinary Finnish artist Jonna Kina is about creation, destruction and the role of museums in preserving art.

This exhibition highlights the use of innovative materials, new technologies and principles of sustainability in contemporary Estonian art and design. The artworks on display give us hope that a shift towards a more ethical world with a new aesthetic is indeed possible.

This exhibition introduces unexhibited paintings from almost all of the artist’s creative periods, which supplement our understanding of Mägi’s heritage.

This solo exhibition of the oeuvre of Lembit Sarapuu (b. 1930) charts the artist’s creative path through six decades.

This exhibition presents furniture and decorative art from the collections of Estonian museums, focusing on the characteristic elements of décor and forms associated with each style and period, from Baroque to Historicism.

Johann Karl Simon Morgenstern (1770–1852) was a professor at the University of Tartu after its reopening in 1802. He was the founder of the library and art museum of the university and a remarkable art collector. He bequeathed his collection to the university. This exhibition showcases the prints and engraved gems from the collection, highlighting the main themes of his collection and the scholar’s wide sphere of interest.

This exhibition focuses on the dialogue between the Baltic and Russian conceptual art of the 1970s and 1980s.

In the major spring exhibition at GL STRAND, the public can appreciate the work of Konrad Mägi through more than 70 carefully selected artworks from the artist’s extensive life’s work, demonstrating his unique position in his national context.

For the first time, this exhibition offers visitors the chance to see the museum’s collection of European and Russian sculptures. It includes copies of classical sculptures from Estonian manor houses, artworks by renowned 19th-century masters and Soviet sculptures representing Socialist Realism.

Jüri Arraku varane looming

Phase Shifting Index is a large immersive video, sound and light installation by the Berlin-residing artist Jeremy Shaw that takes the visitor to a post-human time in the distant future.

The autumn will see an exceptionally large retrospective solo exhibition of the works of the Estonian Modernist Konrad Mägi (1878–1925).

The exhibition presents the St Dymphna altarpiece, painted around 1505 by Goossen Van der Weyden, a grandson of the famous Flemish artist Rogier Van der Weyden.

The magnificent exhibition introduces the abundant 15th‒17th-century Flemish art collection of The Phoebus Foundation, and provides an overview of the versatility of Belgian art culture of that time.

The exhibition introduces one of the most recognisable and beautiful symbols of Japan: the kimono.

The exhibition deals with this powerful phenomenon by displaying works from the Meccas of the heyday of rave, England and Belgium, and provides insight into rave culture today in the Berlin nightclub Berghain, as well as in many other locations.

The exhibition introduces the more than 300-year-old creative legacy of Estonia’s most renowned Baroque-era sculptor and his co-workers.

The exhibition showcases the collection of the Värnik family, the core of which is made up of landscapes by authors linked to the Pallas Art School.

The museum is dedicated to Adamson-Eric (1902–1968), one of the most versatile creative personalities in Estonian art in the 20th century. 

Kaljo Põllu (1934–2010) is one of the most distinguished Estonian artists and a visual interpreter of the world-view of Finno-Ugric and Nordic peoples and their ancient myths.

This is the first exhibition of ancient Egyptian art in Estonia. It includes archaeological findings that are thousands of years old and that belong to one of the most prominent ancient Egyptian art collections in the world: the Museo Egizio in Italy.

The exhibition studies renditions of cats and dogs in art, and explores their significance, roles and symbolic meanings for people and society.

The exhibition of the works of one of the most renowned Estonian avant-gardists, Ado Vabbe (1892–1961), focusses on the variegated stages of his creative career.

This exhibition brings to the viewer interpretations by artists of the complex and intriguing field of particle physics.

The exhibition focusses on one of the largest private art collections in Estonia and on its owner, Mart Lepp.

After his deportation and imprisonment in Siberia from 1949 to 1957, Olev Subbi (1930–2013) returned to Estonia and resumed his art studies. During the 1960s–1980s his art was exceptional under the strict Soviet Estonian regime.

The rooms of permanent exhibition are filled with the early classics of Estonian art from the 18th century until the end of the Second World War.

The artist Flo Kasearu enters into dialogue with the circumstances, looks at the changes in the operation of the museum and documents the new daily routine of its custodians.

Ando Keskküla’s (1950–2008) retrospective solo exhibition covers the creatively most active period of his career, from the end of the 1960s to the end of the 1990s.

The exhibition will tell the story of the Virgin Mary through medieval and early modern art works from houses of worship in Estonia and Livonia, and will also introduce masterpieces of Estonian medieval art from various churches.

The exhibition brings together three artists whose work deals with the topics of materiality and storytelling.

This large-scale exhibition focuses on the changes in women’s self-awareness and social position that started in the early 19th century, and that are reflected in the work of female artists and in the way women are depicted. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Ateneum Art Museum.

The exhibition, marking the centenary of when the University of Tartu became the national Estonian-language university, provides a survey of the development of the university’s art collection through two centuries.

The works of artists of two different generations are used to address topical women’s issues. Women are viewed against the background of social blows and in the context of real and grim stories.

The exhibition is dedicated to the art collector Alfred Rõude (1896–1968), whose mission included systematically collecting the best of Estonian contemporary art.

In the late 1980s, Siim-Tanel Annus (1960) appeared on the international scene as a performance artist. Today, the artist has moved on from performances to pictorial art, and the exhibition juxtaposes the documentation of his performances with his graphic art.

Maire Männik (1922–2003) was a sculptor who lived and worked in Paris for decades after World War II and studied with the famous Russian-French artist Ossip Zadkine. In her work, she combined motifs of nature with abstract elements. In 2004, her son donated most of her studio legacy to the Republic of Estonia.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Eero Järnefelt (1863–1937) and Venny Soldan-Brofeldt (1863–1945), two classics from the Golden Age of Finnish art, worked in the well-known Finnish artist community at Lake Tuusula. The works included in the exhibition – colourful landscapes, portraits of the artist’s community and compositions focused on everyday life – come from the rich collection of the Järvenpää Art Museum.

The exhibition at the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn displays both the individual works of Tommy Cash and Rick Owens, as well as their jointly executed artworks for the show.

The exhibition Sots Art and Fashion brings together two original art movements that emerged in the region and that have generated considerable international interest: the Sots Art of the 1970s and 1980s in visual arts and the post-Soviet aesthetic of the 2010s in fashion.

15.11.2018–17.02.2019 oli Jaapanis Okuni pühamus avatud laiahaardeline Kaljo Põllu loomingu näitus.  Näitus oli osa Eesti Vabariigi 100. sünnipäeva rahvusvahelisest programmist. 

Eesti Kunstimuuseumi ja Riikliku Tretjakovi Galerii koostöös sündinud näitus oli osa Eesti Vabariigi 100. sünnipäeva rahvusvahelisest programmist.