Utopia of freedom. Young Art in Tallinn. First Rebel Years from the late 1950’s to late 1960’s
Location: 4th floor, B-wing
In Estonia, raged by Stalinism, the late 1950’s were perceived as a sort of vernal ice-breaking. The seeming collapse of Stalinism during the so-called Khrushchev thaw created an illusion of a movement towards a more humane society. Fresh air, oozing from tiny cracks in the prison wall raised hopes to renew contacts with the free world. Those were the days when a large group of later well-known Estonian artists took their first artistic steps. The period was a meeting-point of young people from different backgrounds – of those having just graduated from Tallinn Art Institute and those former students of “Pallas” Art School, who were being released from the Siberian prison camps. The discovery of one another created a group of like minds with tight contacts in their professional and private lives.
For years, the standards of social realism and the fake reality of the Soviet way of life had controlled art. Just a few years ago deviating from these canons could lead to fatal repressions. Now, the new common task was breaking free from the hermetic art environment and starting to look for new opportunities in art and society. However, the information coming from the other side of the border was episodic and extremely scanty. Therefore, a maximum number of associations were attempted to reconstruct from each and every crumb of information. This was a painstaking, but also very inspiring road towards discovering world art – and becoming a part thereof. Lack of information gave shape to a unique path and it seems that all the hardships encountered electrified the creativity of those involved.
One of the main characteristics of this frame of mind was belief in the continuity of changes, which also determined the proactive attitude of art, an urge to be involved, to destroy and build – and the illusion of being in the navel of events. Similar groups of young artists developed simultaneously in Tallinn and Tartu. The exhibition “Utopia of freedom” focuses on the Tallinn School. One can study the works by Henn Roode, Olav Maran, Nikolai Kormashov, Olev Subbi, Enn Põldroos, Peeter Ulas, Herald Eelmaa, Edgar Viies and others from the period 1958–1969.
The final chord of the period sounded in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Russian tanks crushed the Prague Spring and the Freedom Utopia. Reality struck in and obviously nothing promising had ever happened. A superficial glimpse might tell that in art, all remained the same. Actually, the inner spur and utopian faith in the arrival of something important had ceased to exist. What remained was just repetition – until the arrival of yet another generation of young artists.
However, a fascinating, deeply original and worthy school of art had been born in Estonia and its activities are considered as one of the highlights of Estonian art.
Curator: Enn Põldroos
