Kaljo reveals world of printmaking

TALLINN - In attending the exhibit Stories in Prints and Letters, one can start to become acquainted with and appreciate the printmaking master’s oeuvre, one which deals with artistic searches of the first Republic of Estonia as well as the interruptions of the Soviet period in an attempt to find individual forms of expression.
This exhibition, at Tallinn’s Kumu Art Museum, also includes Kai Kaljo’s recent video work My Father’s Letters (2014), which reveals Richard Kaljo from a personal perspective.

Kaljo (1914–1978) was an Estonian graphic artist whose oeuvre includes prints, book illustrations and book-plates. His creative activities took place during two dramatically different periods of Estonian art: he studied at the Higher Art School Pallas and began his promising career as an artist during the pre-war Estonia, while his more mature artistic endeavours coincided with the Soviet occupation.

This conflict, an enforced retreat from modernist searches to the depiction manner dictated by the doctrine of Socialist Realism, is reflected in the present exhibition, which focuses on Kaljo’s fine prints.
The idea for the exhibition was proposed by Kaljo’s daughter, the artist Kai Kaljo, whose video My Father’s Letters (2014), which portrays her personal relationship with her father, is here exhibited in Tallinn for the first time. The screening of the video and meeting with Kai Kaljo will take place on Oct. 22 as a part of the Kadriorg Long Wednesday series.

“Stories in Prints and Letters”
Kumu Art Museum
A. Weizenbergi 34, Tallinn, Estonia