The largest ever Estonian art exhibition in Germany will open in Dresden

From 8 May the exhibition Spiegel im Spiegel: Encounters Between Estonian and German Art from Lucas Cranach to Arvo Pärt and Gerhard Richter will be open in the magnificent exhibition hall of the Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau in Dresden. This is the largest ever display of Estonian art in Germany. The exhibition was organised in cooperation between the Dresden State Art Collections (Staatliche Kunststammlungen Dresden, SKD) and the Art Museum of Estonia, and it is being curated by Marion Ackermann, Sergey Fofanov and Kadi Polli.

Spiegel im Spiegel is an extensive cooperation project that studies past and present contacts between Estonian and German art. While reflecting the complexity of those relations and the issues of colonial power and mentality, the exhibition also highlights the cultural intertwining in German, Baltic-German and Estonian art.

The exhibition brings together the works of Arvo Pärt and Gerhard Richter, August Matthias Hagen and Caspar David Friedrich, Eduard Wiiralt and Otti Dix, Konrad Mägi and Max Pechstein, Ülo Sooster and Joseph Beuys, and many other Estonian and German greats.

“The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden has set its sights on studying art from eastern, central and northern Europe and on cooperating with significant museums from those regions. Spiegel im Spiegel is our first cooperation with the Art Museum of Estonia. This encompassing cultural encounter impressively accentuates how close and impactful the interactions of the two countries have been for centuries: these are ties that extend to the present time. We believe that this exhibition will enrich our understanding of our shared history and art,” said the director general of the Dresden State Art Collections, Bernd Ebert.

“Estonian art deserves to be better known, particularly in Germany, because we have centuries of shared history, from the Crusades of the early 13th century through the Baltic-German overlordship and Russian czarist rule to the early 20th century. We have set up twelve encounters or dialogues between Estonian and German art at this exhibition, including An Artist’s Self-Image, A University of the Age of Enlightenment in Tartu, Learning from Old Masters, Romanticism by the Gulf of Finland, Baltic Decadence, Two Republics, and Dixi and Wiiralt’s Circle of Friends, while Fear and On the Other Side of the Mirror look at the period of Soviet Estonia and the German Democratic Republic. Interferences by contemporary art also play a significant role: Kristina Norman deals with German colonial fantasies and the Hanseatic legacy, and Jaanus Samma handles Estonian and German national stereotypes. The opening dialogue of the exhibition is the encounter between the oeuvres of two living legends: Arvo Pärt and the Dresden artist Gerhard Richter,” said Kadi Polli, one of the curators of the exhibition and the director of the Kumu Art Museum.

The majority of the works displayed come from the collections of the Art Museum of Estonia and SKD, but some have been borrowed from other museums and private collections in Estonia and Germany. Two thirds of the nearly 150 works on display come from collections in Estonia, and they include paintings, prints, sculptures, items, videos and spatial installations. The contemporary artists involved include Kristina Norman, Jaanus Samma and Edith Karlson; the latter’s oeuvre is represented by the central part of Hora Lupi, the work displayed in the Estonian pavilion of the 2024 Venice Biennale. This is the first time Arvo Pärt’s manuscripts and musical diaries, selected by the Arvo Pärt Centre, will be displayed outside Estonia.

The exhibition will be opened on 7 May by President of the Republic of Estonia Alar Karis and Prime Minister of the Free State of Saxony Michael Kretschmer. On the evening of 8 May, the ensemble Vox Clamantis will perform Arvo Pärt’s music in the atrium of the Albertinum in Dresden.

The book accompanying the exhibition will be available in German, English and Estonian. The editor of the book, published by the Art Museum of Estonia, is Kadi Polli and it includes texts written by the Arvo Pärt Centre, Marion Ackermann, Eero Epner, Sergey Fofanov, Linda Kaljundi, Andreas Kalkun, Greta Koppel, Ivar Leimus, Kadi Polli and Elnara Taidre. The German and English language versions of the book will also include an essay by Professor Karsten Brüggemann, providing an overview of the history of the relations between Estonia and Germany.

The exhibition Spiegel im Spiegel will be open in
the Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden: 08.05.–31.08.2025
and the Great Hall of Kumu, Tallinn: 24.10.2025–12.04.2026