The Art Museum of Estonia in summer: from Kristi Kongi’s world of colour at Kumu to Finnish Golden Age art at the Kadriorg Art Museum

The Art Museum of Estonia comprises five museums in Tallinn with a varied exhibition programme. The city’s largest and most prestigious park, Kadriorg, is home to the Kumu Art Museum, the Kadriorg Art Museum and the Mikkel Museum, while the Niguliste Museum and the Adamson-Eric Museum are neighbours in the Old Town. These museums, each with its own image and focus, offer exceptional art exhibitions and a magical atmosphere that make your visit to the Estonian capital unforgettable.

An abundant world of colour by Kristi Kongi at Kumu

With its modern architecture and fascinating permanent exhibitions of Estonian art, the Kumu Art Museum can be considered the home of Estonian art, as it exhibits the most important works of Estonian art history. The permanent exhibitions of Kumu present Estonian art through three centuries: from the golden age of 18th-century classics to the pivotal art of the 1990s.

This summer, Kumu is surprising art lovers with Kristi Kongi’s solo exhibition Chromatic Drift, which creates an immersive sensory and spatial experience.

Central to this experience is colour, a hallmark of Kristi Kongi’s oeuvre. Extending beyond the canvas, colours and motifs have spilled onto the museum’s floor, walls, windows and into the outdoor space.

Chromatic Drift at the Kumu Great Hall is Kristi Kongi’s most ambitious solo exhibition to date, presenting works created specifically for this display. The first part of the title, “chromatic”, refers, according to the artist, to an abundance of colour, while “drift” stems from a poetic mode of being within unmapped territory.

Also on view at Kumu is Pictures from Travels, an exhibition introducing the work of one of Estonia’s most distinguished early 20th-century artists, Karin Luts (1904–1993). The display centres on watercolours and sketches from her trips to Italy, Spain, France and her later home country Sweden.

In addition, the exhibition The Triumph of Galatea: Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence will remain open until 9 August in the contemporary art gallery on the 5th floor of the Kumu Art Museum. It explores transformations in human experience and developments in culture and society in response to the rise of new technologies.

The brightest stars of Finnish art at the Kadriorg Art Museum

One of the gems of the gorgeous Kadriorg Park is the Kadriorg Art Museum, housed in an 18th-century baroque palace.

The permanent exhibition at the Kadriorg Art Museum presents the best of foreign art from the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia: Western European and Russian paintings, graphic art, sculptures and applied art from the 16^th–20^th centuries.

This summer, the museum presents a major exhibition showcasing one of Finland’s richest and most diverse art collections: Symphony of Art and Nature: The Serlachius Collection. The exhibition features more than 70 works from the Serlachius Collection, including works by the brightest stars of Finnish art: Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Helene Schjerfbeck and Hugo Simberg. In addition to their oeuvre, the display includes works by international old masters, among others a masterpiece by the 17th-century Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera, and by Finnish contemporary artists: Anna Retulainen, Anu Tuominen et al. The exhibition will remain open until 23 August.

Treasures of Delft ceramics at the Mikkel Museum

Established in the former kitchen building of Kadriorg Palace, the Mikkel Museum focuses on presenting private collections and reflecting on the collecting of art in general.

The core of the museum’s permanent exhibition is a side-by-side display of European and Chinese ceramics and porcelain, as well as Western European paintings from the collection of the art collector Johannes Mikkel.

At present, the Mikkel Museum is also hosting the exhibition Delft Blue: Ceramic Treasures from a Private Collection, offering a unique opportunity to explore the ceramic world of the collector Heikki Pauts.

The collection on display is exceptional in its diversity and the wide range of factories represented, offering visitors an excellent overview of the golden age of Delft pottery.

The exhibition Delft Blue is in close thematic dialogue with the display of the Johannes Mikkel collection on the museum’s second floor, which showcases the Chinese and Japanese porcelain that served as a model for the Delft masters, and complements the exhibition with two further examples of Delft ceramics: a pair of large vases produced at the De Twee Scheepjes (Two Little Ships) factory.

Mediaeval art meets history at the Niguliste Museum

While in the Old Town of Tallinn, every art and history lover should visit the Niguliste Museum, which displays the best of mediaeval and post-Reformation ecclesiastical art in Estonia. The painting Dance of Death in the permanent exhibition of the museum, created in the late 15th century in the workshop of the Lübeck master Bernt Notke, is unique: it is the only surviving mediaeval Dance of Death in the world painted on canvas. The glass lift in the historic church tower of the museum, takes you to the sky-deck, where you can enjoy a unique view of the city of Tallinn and its bay.

The exhibition From Restorer to Conservator, currently on display at the Niguliste Museum, marks the 50th anniversary of the Conservation Department of the Art Museum of Estonia. The exhibition in the museum’s Great Hall reveals the long and often complex restoration history of some of Estonia’s oldest and most iconic artworks in the Niguliste permanent collection, from the early modern period to the present day.

A separate display showcasing the conservation of contemporary art is open at the same time in the Tower Gallery of the Niguliste Museum: it focuses on contemporary works of art and the challenges of preserving them.

The Adamson-Eric Museum exhibition gives stones a voice

The permanent exhibition at the Adamson-Eric Museum in the Old Town of Tallinn gives an overview of the works of Adamson-Eric (1902–1968), one of the most versatile Estonian artists, vividly reflecting the development of Estonian painting and applied art over more than four decades.

The permanent exhibition features the versatility of the artist as both a sensitive painter and a prominent applied artist, highlighting his wealth of ideas and dynamic movement across different artistic disciplines.

The Adamson-Eric Museum’s summer exhibition Speaking Stones explores how stones and minerals have inspired stone carvers, as well as painters and jewellery artists, during different periods.

The exhibition features previously unexhibited or rarely exhibited carved stones, models of carved stones, and works of art from Estonia’s medieval towns.

Displayed in dialogue with these stones are stone-themed works by Estonian artists, including Oskar Kallis, Eduard Wiiralt, Juhan Muks and Peeter Mudist. A special section is devoted to Estonian jewellery art.

The Adamson-Eric Museum, located on the romantic Lühike jalg street, is a special oasis of art in the middle of the Old Town of Tallinn. After exploring the exhibitions, relax in the museum’s cosy courtyard, where you can enjoy a swing to refresh your spirit.