Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
runs every 10-15 minutes, #68 does not run on Sun); both leave from Teatri
Väljak, on the far side of the pastel yellow theater, across from the Solaris
shopping mall. Get off at the Kumu stop, then walk up the stairs and across
the bridge.
Self-Guided Tour:
Just off the ticket lobby, the
great hall
has tempor-
ary exhibits; however, the permanent collection on the third and fourth floors
is Kumu's main draw. While you can rent an audioguide, I found the free lam-
inatedsheetsinmostroomsenoughtoenjoythecollection.Themaze-likelay-
out on each floor presents the art chronologically.
The
third floor,
which focuses on classics of Estonian art, starts with 18th-
century portraits of local aristocrats, moves through 19th-century Romanti-
cism (including some nice views of Tallinn and idealized images of Estonian
peasant women in folk costumes), winds through several rooms of local Ex-
pressionists and other Modernist painters, and ends with art produced during
World War II. One very high-ceilinged room has a wall lined with dozens of
expressive busts by sculptor Villu Jaanisoo.
The
fourth-floor exhibit,
called “Difficult Choices,” is an interesting sur-
vey of Estonian art from the end of World War II until “re-independence” in
1991. Some of the works are mainstream, while others are by dissident artists.
Estonian art parted ways with Western Europe with the Soviet takeover
in 1945. The Soviets insisted that artworks actively promote the communist
struggle, and to that end, Estonian artists were forced to adopt the Stalinist
formula, making paintings that were done in the traditional national style but
that were socialist in content—in the style now called
Socialist Realism.
Socialist Realism had its roots in the early 20th-century Realist movement,
whose artists wanted to depict the actual conditions of life rather than just
glamour and wealth—in America, think of John Steinbeck's novels or Walker
Evans' photographs of the rural poor. In the Soviet Union, this artistic curios-
ity about the working class was perverted into an ideology: Art was supposed
to glorify labor and the state's role in distributing its fruits. In a system where
there was ultimately little incentive to work hard, art was seen as a tool to mo-
tivate the masses, and to support the Communist Party's hold on power.
