Art Museum of Estonia (1)

Art Museum of Estonia
Art Museum of Estonia was founded on November 17th , 1919, but it was not until 1921 that it got its first permanent building – the Kadriorg Palace , built in the 18th century . In 1929 the palace was expropriated from the Art Museum in order to rebuild it as the residence of the President of Estonia. The Art Museum of Estonia was housed in several different temporary spaces, until it moved back to the palace in 1946. In September, 1991 the Kadriorg Palace was closed, because it had totally deteriorated by then. At the end of the year the Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia decided to guarantee the construction of a new building for the Art Museum of Estonia in Kadriorg. Untill then the Knighthood House at Toompea Hill served as the temporary main building of the Art Museum of Estonia. The exhibition there was opened on April 1, 1993. Art Museum of Estonia premanently closed down the exhibitions in that building in October 2005.
 
At the end of the 1970s, in the 1980s the first branches of the Art Museum of Estonia were founded. Starting from the 1995 all the branches offer different educational programmes for children and young people.  In 1996 the exhibition hall on the first floor of Rotermann Salt Storage  was opened, this branch was closed in May 2005. In summer 2000 the restored Kadriorg Palace was opened, but not as the main building of the Art Museum of Estonia, but as a branch. Kadriorg Art Museum now exhibits the foreign art collection of the Art Museum of Estonia.
 
At present there are  five active branches of the Art Museum of Estonia: Kadriorg Art Museum (Kadriorg Palace and Mikkel Museum), Niguliste Museum, Adamson-Eric Museum, and Kumu Art Museum (the new main building of the Art Museum of Estonia)
For the first time during its nearly 100-year-old history, the Art Museum of Estonia has a building that both meets the museum's requirements and is worthy of  Estonian art in its collections. Kumu Art Museum is a multifunctional art museum that includes exhibition halls , an auditorium that offers diverse possibilities, and an education centre for children and art lovers of all ages .
Collection
The collection that consists of  55 823 titles is displayed in the following branches:

• the permanent exhibition of classics of Estonian art (18th century – II World War),  the permanent exhibition of Estonian art from 1945-1991 and contemporary art at Kumu Art Museum; 
  
• ecclesiastical Medieval and Baroque art from the period between 13th –18th century, silverware of guilds, craft corporations, Brotherhood of the Black Heads and churches at Niguliste Museum;
  
•  European and Russian art from the period between 16th – 20th century in the Kadriorg Palace, and a valuable collection of the 16th –20th c. art from Western Europe , Russia and China , donated to the museum by Johannes Mikkel, at Mikkel Museum – at Kadriorg Art Museum;
  
• Art of Adamson-Eric ( 1902 –1968), one of the most outstanding Estonian painters of the 20th century, at Adamson-Eric Museum;
  
• national romanticism of an Estonian artist of the first generation, Kristjan Raud (1865–1943), at Kristjan Raud House Museum located in Nõmme, in the premises of the final home of the artist.
  

Kadriorg Art Museum
The Kadriorg palace and park were founded by the Russian czar Peter I. According to the designs of the architect Niccolo Michetti , invited from Rome, the palace was built after the Italian villas, consisting of a main building and of two annexes.
The well-preserved great hall is one of the best examples of Baroque architecture not only in Estonia but also in the whole Northern Europe. Besides Russian and Italian artists , masters from Stockholm , Riga and Tallinn took part in its building work . The two-storied hall is decorated with rich stucco work and ceiling paintings .
The vestibule and some other rooms in the main building, as well as some of the stoves have retained their 18th-century appearance.
The park was named Kadriorg ( Catherine ’s Valley) after the empress Catherine I. Most of the Russian rulers, from Peter’s daughter Elizabeth, to the last Romanov emperor Nicholas II, have visited this imperial summer residence.
From 1921 the Estonian Museum in Tallinn was situated in the palace. In 1928 it was reorganized into the Art Museum of Estonia.
From 1929 the palace served as the residence of the Estonian head of state (from 1938 president). The building was renovated in 1933-34. The banqueting hall after the design of the architect Aleksander Vladovsky was constructed at the back of the palace. Some rooms were refurnished in Estonian national romantic style after the designs of the architect Olev Siinmaa .
From 1946 until 1991 the palace housed the main building of the Art Museum of Estonia. Due to the deterioration of the building, large restoration works were started . The government of Sweden supported the works that lasted over 9 years , with 21 million Swedish kronor.
On July 22, 2000 the Kadriorg Art Museum, branch of the Art Museum of Estonia, was opened in the renovated palace. Besides exhibitions, concerts, theatre performances and receptions, as well as lectures, tours and introductions of art works take place in the museum
Several smaller buildings belong to the palace ensemble. Most of them have been renovated by now. The 18th-century pavilion (Lusthaus) and the guesthouse from the beginning of the 19th century housed the restoration workshops of the Art Museum of Estonia until the department was moved to Kumu after it's opening in 2006. In 1997 a new museum introducing the private collection of Johannes Mikkel was opened in the former kitchen building of the palace. The wooden guards’ house opposite the gates of the palace that was originally built at the beginning of the 19th century has been completely restored.
The territory of the park that was planned together with the palace was originally over 100 hectares . Its central part will be restored as an Italian-French regular park. The Flower Garden behind the palace has been renovated after 18th-century examples. The Lower Garden in front of the palace is waiting for its turn .
Kadriorg Palace and Kadriorg Park will celebrate the 290th anniversary this year. The jubilee will be marked out by the exhibition "The Palace and Its Story" at Kadriorg Art Museum, accompanied by a series of guided tours and lectures within the Saturday Academy, the premier of a documentary in July and a richly illustrated album on Kadriorg Palace coming out at the end of the year.
The events of the anniversary, taking place at Kadriorg Art Museum and in Kadriorg Park, will be described in a special edition "Kadriorg 290" issued on May.
The history of Kadriorg Palace – one of the finest Baroque ensembles in North Europe – dates back to 1718.  On July 22, 1718 Russian Tsar Peter the Great, assisted by the Italian architect Niccolo Michetti, began the building of the palace and the park to a picturesque spot near Tallinn, later on renamed Kadriorg after Empress Catherine I.
The jubilee season is launched by the exhibition "The Palace and Its Story", spotlighting authentic objects, documents , works of art, blueprints and pictures, thus illustrating the historic layers of the palace and entertaining the visitors with the air of the past centuries . 
Collection
The collection contains over more than 900 Western European and Russian paintings from 16th to 20th centuries, about 3,500 prints , over 3,000 sculptures and gems , and about 1,600 decorative arts objects (historic furniture, porcelain, glass etc.).
The foreign art collection of the Art Museum of Estonia was founded already in the first years of the museum. In subsequent years, new works have come to the museum mostly as purchases or donations. The works in the exhibition of the museum are arranged according to the various schools of different countries.
About 100 paintings attributed to the 16th-18th century masters from the Netherlands  school form the most valuable part of the collection. Among them are the works of art by Pieter Breughel the Younger, Frans Pourbus the Younger, the workshop of Marten de Vos, Adriaen van Ostade, Jacob Gerritz. Cuyp, Jan van Kessel, Hans van Essen and others .
There are some examples of German panel painting from the 16th-18th centuries, represented by the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder , Benjamin Block, Franz Werner von Tamm, Anton Graff and others. Angelica Kauffmann who in 1760s-1770s worked in London, is the representative of German late Rococo. Italian art is illustrated mostly by 17th-century masters like Bernardo Strozzi and Francesco Trevisani.
An important part of the collection belongs to the Russian portrait painting from the 18th-19th centuries, represented by such masters like Dmitri Levitsky, Vladimir Borovikovsky, Vasily Tropinin, and Giovanni Battista Lampi who worked in Russia in the 18th century. The representatives of Russian academic realist painting from the second half of the 19th century are Ivan Shishkin, Ivan Aivazovsky, Ilya Repin. The works by Abram Arkhipov, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Konstantin Korovin are examples of Russian Modernism from the first decades of the 20th century.
The museum has also a small collection of Finnish painting from the beginning of the 20th century. The works by Alvar Cawén, Tyko Sallinen and Väinö Kunnas could be of interest as examples of Nordic painting culture.
The museum has a remarkable collection of over 100 miniature portraits, painted by 17th-19th century Russian and Western European artists on bone or copper plates. Konstantin Tooming, an art collector of Estonian origin in Moscow, donated most of them to the museum in 1972.
The display of sculpture in the Museum of Foreign Art contains works mostly from Italian and Russian masters (Pietro Tenerani, Matvei Tshizhov). The subject of the works ranges from the antique mythology to the portraits of outstanding people.
The exhibition contains also furniture, porcelain, glass, and metalwork from 17th-20th centuries. Russian porcelain, displayed in a separate room , is especially well represented besides the works of the Western European factories like Meissen, Berlin, and Copenhagen.
The museum has a rich collection of prints that will be the subject of future exhibitions. There are separate rooms in the palace that have been adjusted for arranging temporary exhibitions.
The Baltic -German prints about the Kadriorg palace and park are displayed in a separate room. The engravings and lithographs with views of Kadriorg by the 19th-century masters like J. Hau, Th. Gehlhaar, L. H. Petersen and others make the visitors realize the historical significance of the palace ensemble and its importance in local cultural context .
A collection of Estonian, Russian and English silver - and goldsmiths' works was added to the Kadriorg Art Museum's exhibition on the 8th of March in 2002. Silver Chamber is open during the opening hours of the museum (exept 13-14).
Kumu Art Museum
For 75 years there have been tentative efforts to build a purpose -built museum for the Art Museum of Estonia (AME).  There have been several architectural competitions; in 1933 one of the competitors was Alvar Aalto, who took 3rd prize with his historical project, which was later built in Denmark . Due to World War II the museum was never built and AME had to wait another 50 years for the next opportunity.
 
In 1993–1994, an open international architectural competition was held , in which architects from ten countries (Estonia, Finland , Denmark, Italy , Canada, Norway , Sweden, Australia , Germany and the USA) took part. The competition was organised by the government of the Republic of Estonia, the Art Museum of Estonia and the Estonian Union of Architects. The winner of the international architectural competition to design the building (1993–1994) was the Finnish architect Pekka Vapaavuori. In February 1999 a contract between the AME and Vapaavuori was signed , which launched practical activities for the building of the museum. Construction started in 2002. The Kumu Art Museum was opened to the visitors in February 2006.
 
The new museum site is located on four hectares in Tallinn, on the limestone bank of Lasnamägi next to Kadriorg Park. The office of the President of the Republic of Estonia and Kadriorg Palace, which is a part of the Art Museum, lie in the vicinity of the art museum. The building has seven floors , including technical floors, and the total area is 23 900 m². In 2004 the new museum got its name – Kumu – in an open competition.
 
The Kumu (KUnstiMUuseum) Art Museum is a modern multifunctional art building, which contains exhibition halls, a lecture hall offering diverse facilities , and an educational centre for young visitors and for art lovers.
 
Kumu is meant for different people – for those who are already well- versed in art and for those who simply wish to spend their time in a congenial environment. Kumu welcomes children and families and, most importantly, Kumu serves as a laboratory where diverse ideas emerge and develop . These ideas examine contemporary visual culture and its function in society.
Visitor service rooms 
Visitor service starts in the lobby, which furnishes the first impression of the building. The spacious lobby (a total of 675 m2) houses the visitor information and the Museum shop. The cloakroom can accommodate 1488 and toilets are available for 400 people. The cafe comes with a summer terrace situated by the park-side entrance of the building. This area can also be used outside of the museum’s business hours. Additionally, there is a restaurant that can serve 40 visitors.
 
Exhibition halls
Exhibition halls that cover appr. 5,000 m2 of the area of the building meet the international requirements set for inner climate and security of art museums , and are equipped with modern lighting and sound technology. Halls can be divided into separate parts which enables the organisation of independent exhibitions in the same space. The temporary exhibitions hall can also be used for various other events as well as exhibitions. The museum’s inner courtyard with its terraces, stairs and ramps can be used for art events and for the display of sculptures. The facade of the building can be transformed into a large screen that displays video art.
 
Auditorium
Kumu auditorium that consists of 246 seats , modern sound-, video-, film - and lighting equipment as well as of a stage that can be customised for different purposes , supports the museum’s main task of presenting of art and culture in a broader sense . This multipurpose hall can house art events, concerts, dance - and theatre performances, film-evenings as well as science and business conferences.
 
Education centre
Study rooms at Kumu Education Centre have been equipped with modern information- and video technology and all that is necessary for active engagement with art (easels, paints, graphic presses, ceramic furnaces etc.). Visitors of all ages are welcomed to participate in the various educational activities the museum has to offer.
The Education Centre provides:

• art education programmes for children, youth and adults based on Kumu exhibitions;
  
• museum school: lectures, art studio , workshops, art clubs for children and adults;
  
• art projects and exhibitions based on on- going projects in Kumu exhibition halls, studios, courtyard and elsewhere.
  

Those who participate in Kumu art education programmes learn under the guidance of professional artists and art teachers, and have the free use of different studios as well as the auditorium.
 
Library and archive
In addition to the museum’s own researchers, art teachers, students, artists and researchers from other museums, art collectors, restorers etc. can use the museum library. From the beginning of 2006, the library provides access to appr. 33,000 books as well as to more than 10,000 archival documents. The library also has an extensive collection of slides and photographs and a diversity of posters, videos and reproductions.
 
Collection depositories
Depositories of the museum are meant for keeping the museum’s current and future collections that are not on display. The location of the depositories in the basement of the building allows a good connection with exhibition halls, exhibition preparation rooms, loading facilities and restoration workshops. Proper level of humidity and a temperature necessary for preservation of art works is permanently maintained in the depositories.
 
Restoration department
Kumu has a restoration department that meets all international requirements and ensures the preservation of current and future collections of the museum. The spaces and equipment allow the restoration and preservation of the museum’s collections - paintings, graphical works and sculptures, as well as of polychrome wood and frames - on a high technical level, and also serve customers from outside of the museum. Experience acquired from Ateneum Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma , in Helsinki has been used during the planning stages of the department.
 
Work spaces and workshops
This category covers the loading- and delivery facilities, special storage facilities, workshops, photography laboratories and other work spaces.
 
Offices
Offices provide the employees of the museum with a contemporary work- and leisure environment. In addition to other departments, also the finance -, development -, publishing- and communication departments of the Art Museum of Estonia are situated here.
Auditorium
The Kumu auditorium – a unique exhibition hall
The Kumu auditorium is a notional, as well as practical, extension of the art museum and the foundations of its activity are interconnected with the exhibitions organised in the building. The aim of the auditorium is to have a slightly differently oriented program , but still be one of many exhibition halls in the Kumu Art Museum. In terms of the organisation of its content, Kumu has two purposes: it is at the same time a national gallery and a museum of modern art. But the program of the auditorium is much more comprehensive. The multifunctional hall, with its advanced sound, video, cinema and lighting systems and its parquet floored stage, which can easily be readjusted, is an excellent venue for organising demanding cultural events: concerts, dance and drama shows, film nights or scientific conferences. In addition to the auditorium, which has 245 seats, one can also use the meeting room for 15 people and two interpreter cabins provided with digital equipment. 
Niguliste Museum
The St. Nicholas' Church , consecrated to merchants’ and seamen’s patron St Nicholas, is architectually one of the most integral and harmonious medieval churches in Estonia. Its history goes back to the 13th century – it is assumed to have been founded around 1230 by German merchants. While Tallinn was still unfortified, the church with heavy bars for closing the entrances, loopholes and hiding places for refugees served also military purposes. When the fortifications around the town were completed in the 14th century, the St. Nicholas' Church lost its defensive function and became a typical medieval parish church.
In the 15th century large-scale reconstructions, in the cause of which the choir and the three-aisled main body got their present appearance, were undertaken. The Baroque spire with airy galleries was raised higher stage by stage through several centuries. During the Soviet air-raid on March 9, 1944 the St. Nicholas' Church and the buildings surrounding it were severely damaged.
The most precious art treasures survived merely thanks to their timely evacuation from the church. Hence, besides Baroque epitaphs and other masterworks of carving , a remarkable collection of Renaissance and Baroque chandeliers, as well as the 14-17th century tombstones covering the floor of the Chapel of St Matthew (later St Anthony), but also such invaluable rarities from the 15–16th centuries as the high altar , the initial fragment of the famous painting Danse Macabre and the altar of St Anthony survived.
The high altar of the St Nicholas' Church was made between 1478 –1481 in the workshop of Hermen Rode , master from Lübeck. Paintings on the outer flanks of this double-winged altar depict the life of St Nicholas, the central part and the unfolded wings expose over thirty polychrome wooden sculptures forming the so-called gallery of saints.
Danse Macabre - painting by the Lübeck master Bernt Notke – depicts the inevitable transcience of life, the figures of Death taking along the mighty as well as the feeble ones. Only the initial fragment, remained of the original painting with up to 50 figures representing all the medieval social positions , can be seen in the St Nicholas' Church. It is most likely the painter ’s renewal of an analogous painting in Lübeck dating from 1461, accomplished at the end of the 15th century.
The altar of St Anthony or the Altar of Christ's Passion was made at the beginning of the 16th century in the Netherlands by the Brugge master Adrian Isenbrandt and later complemented by Michel Sittow, a Tallinn artist of all-European renown. Also the altar of Mary , made in 1495 by an artist known as the author of the " Lucia Legend", as well as  the altar of the Holy Kin (the so-called Brussels altar) from about 1490, made in Jan Borman ’s workshop of carved altars in Brussels, are displayed in the church.
Since the end of year 2002 unique 350 years old decorative screen of Bogislaus Rosen's chapel carved by Frans Hoppenstätt is also opened for visitors.
The ruined church was restored and inaugurated in 1984 as a museum- concert hall, where the collection of medieval art of the Art Museum of Estonia is exposed, and also organ and choir music concerts can be enjoyed regularly.
The exposition comprises ecclesiastical art from 14th-20th centuries, including exquisite altarpieces and sculptures. The high altar (1478–1481) made in the workshop of Hermen Rode, the initial fragment of the famous painting "Danse Macabre" by Bernt Notke (end of the15th c.) and many others.
The Silver Chamber displays silver treasures of guilds, craft corporations and Brotherhood of the Black Heads. The oldest objects in the Silver Chamber originate from the 15th century, the youngest from the first decades of the 20th century, i.e. from the last years in the history of guilds in Tallinn. There is no other town in Europe in which such an extensive amount of guild silver has been preserved than in Tallinn. The majority of the objects were made by goldsmiths in Estonian towns; however , the associations also commissioned vessels from Germany, Sweden, and Russia.
On February 15, 2000 the Art Museum of Estonia called the meeting of an international group of experts for evaluating the cultural significance of the St. Nicholas’ Museum in Tallinn (a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia) and the works of art preserved there.
 
The group of experts presented their opinion in the three following issues :

• On the cultural significance of the St. Nicholas’ Church and its works of art.
  
• On the material value of the works of art exhibited in the St. Nicholas’ Church.
  
• On the importance of preservation and protection of the works of art of the St. Nicholas’ Church (at present named the Niguliste Museum-Concert Hall, the Art Museum of Estonia).
  

 
The St. Nicholas’ Church, heavily damaged by fire in 1944, was restored for the purpose to preserve and exhibit the works of art from older centuries (mainly 13th–18th c.) in the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia. The building was opened as a branch of the Art Museum in 1984, and since then has combined the functions of a museum and a concert hall.
 
The reason why such a commission was called together was the attempt of the Ministry of Culture to find a new administrator for the building of the St. Nicholas’ Church because extremely poor financial resources of the Art Museum of Estonia do not enable to repair the building that holds invaluable treasures of art. In such complicated circumstances, the necessity for objective opinion upon the priorities of the St. Nicholas’ Church arised.
 
The commission underlined the uniqueness of the St. Nicholas’ Church and its art treasures in the European context. The church building, which has mainly preserved its 15th-century shape , is a valuable work of art itself, and enables us to study the development of church architecture from the 13th to the 20th century. Several works of art that are exhibited in the church have been located there for centuries (e.g. the retable for the high altar made in the workshop of Hermen Rode in Lübeck, Danse Macabre by Bernt Notke, the retable of the Holy Passion, the seven-armed candelabrum, etc.); therefore , the St. Nicholas’ Church as a museum offers a unique opportunity to exhibit these works of art in their historical and liturgical context. The objects, commissioned for the church in the Middle Ages and in later centuries, have been returned to their natural environment. Thus, the church and its art treasures compose a historical and cultural unit which value can hardly be overestimated.
 
Many objects exhibited in the church are of extraordinarily high artistic and material value, above all the retable for the main altar with the paintings by Hermen Rode, and Dance Macabre by Bernt Notke which is unique in the whole world. The position of such masterpieces in the context of European and world art history is, in fact , invaluable.
 
The commission agreed that due to the uniqueness of these medieval works of art and to the fact that such objects extremely rarely occur at the art market , it is possible to talk only about the relative price of these objects. The members of the commission gave some examples concerning the insurance and acquisition practice at European museums, in particular those in the Baltic Sea region . The main altar of the St. Nicholas’ Church was assessed at 50 million US dollars and Danse Macabre at the same price.
 
It is clear that the medieval works of art and other objects exhibited in the St Nicholas’ Church require a stabile and controlled microclimate and that they must constantly be looked after by specialists , including art historians, restorers and climatologists. At the same time, the museum functions as a research centre for church art and architecture.
 
Thus far, the main goals of the St. Nicholas’ Church as a museum have been the exhibition and conservation of these works of art. In the course of the 20th century, a lot of mental energy, skills , and finance has been spent on restoration and conservation of the works of art exhibited there. These goals and the research must remain the priorities of the museum also in the future. The commission agreed that the art museum is the only competent institution to guarantee the fulfilment of these priorities. At the same time, it is obvious that the means of the museum are not sufficient enough to take care of the condition of the building, which is a monument under state protection. State as the owner should provide more financial help in this matter than thus far. In the future the museum should continue to be open to co- operation projects which respect the main goals of the museum. One possible solution for improving the condition of the church building and its art treasures would be to establish a foundation which would deal with the management of the Niguliste Museum.