The exhibition at the Kumu Art Museum introduces the artist Karin Luts and her travel images

The exhibition Pictures from Travels, introducing the works of one of the most prominent Estonian artists of the early 20th century, Karin Luts (1904–1993), opens at the Kumu Art Museum on 20 March. The exhibition focuses on watercolours and sketches from Luts’s trips to Italy, Spain and France, as well as the artist’s final homeland, Sweden. The exhibition at Kumu is a further development of the exhibition of the same name that took place at the Tartu Art Museum.

“Travelling was a part of Karin Luts’s life. She needed it to educate herself and stay creatively alert, but also to distract herself from everyday worries. Luts did not consider the views she created during her travels to be real art, but something similar to photography, with the difference that the recording was done manually. Yet these works play an important role in her oeuvre. She captured a wide variety of locations, putting her most genuine emotions on paper,” the curator Mare Joonsalu said, introducing the exhibition.

The exhibition features the best-known works from the pre-war period as well as two iconic paintings by Karin Luts, which are true treasures of Estonian art: the painting Comédie Française (1939, Art Museum of Estonia) shows a scene from a Parisian theatre and Venice Motif (1939, Tartu Art Museum) depicts a view on the edge of a Venetian canal. These are two important starting points for Karin Luts’s great love for these iconic destinations.

The Tartu Art Museum exhibition featured 76 works by Karin Luts. The Kumu exhibition hall features a total of 160 works, and many of the added works are being shown to the public for the first time.

Visitors can also watch a film based on Karin Luts’s diary entries, made especially for the Kumu exhibition, which provides insight into the artist’s everyday life, where she talks about her difficulties and the journey she took to becoming a successful creator. The film was directed and shot by Ants Tammik and features the actress Inga Salurand. The text was written by Katrin Kivimaa, based on Karin Luts’s diaries.

The exhibition will be accompanied by audience and educational programmes. On Saturday, 21 March, the exhibition’s opening programme will begin at 1 pm and includes a curatorial tour with Mare Joonsalu.

Karin Luts (1904–1993) was one of the most important Estonian artists of the 20th century. She was a painter and printmaker with her own unique style. In the 1920s, she studied at the Pallas Art School, where her teachers included Konrad Mägi and Ado Vabbe. Luts was the first Estonian woman artist to actively participate in art life not only through her works, but also with her writings and art criticism.

The artist’s diaries and correspondence form a rare and unique archive: for example, Natalie Mei’s letters to Karin Luts have survived, offering insight into the complex status of women in the art field in the early 20th century and the relationships between artists.

Karin Luts lived half of her life in exile in Sweden. Her wish for her legacy to reach Estonia was fulfilled in 2001. In 2004, Karin Luts’s solo exhibition Conflicts and Confessions was held at the Tartu Art Museum, and in 2005, an exhibition introducing her oeuvre was held at the Adamson-Eric Museum as part of the series “Estonian First Women Artists”

The exhibition Karin Luts: Pictures from Travels will remain open in the B-wing on the 3rd floor of the Kumu Art Museum until 6 September 2026.

Curator: Mare Joonsalu (Tartmus)
Exhibition design and graphic design: Angelika Schneider
Coordinator: Tiiu Saadoja
Exhibition technician: Siim Hiis
Public and education programmes: Frederik Klanberg
Selection of diary entries featured in the accompanying film: Katrin Kivimaa