50 years later, Kumu recreates revolutionary Soviet-era Estonian art show
Tallinn's Kumu Art Museum is marking 50 years since "Harku 1975," a groundbreaking unofficial show where young artists and scientists drew crowds by the busload.
The event brought together artists Leonhard Lapin, Sirje Runge and Raul Meel, along with young scientists at the Harku Institute of Experimental Biology, represented by Tõnu Karu. Though permission was only granted for a seminar, the group also mounted a revolutionary art display.
Curator Liisa Kaljula said the 1975 Harku exhibition, with its atmosphere resembling more rock concert than art show, was in many ways a pivotal event.
"First of all, it was the last unofficial exhibition in Estonian art history," she said. "By the 1970s, the art scene had gotten so liberal that there was no need for unofficial shows anymore — everything could be displayed in official venues."
What was displayed at Harku has since become part of the Estonian art canon, but at the time, it was radically innovative. Back then, paintings, sculptures and graphic art on the scene were usually confined to strict formats: paintings and graphics hung on walls, while sculptures sat on pedestals.
"But at this exhibition, everything was freer," Kaljula continued. "Paintings extended into the room, sculptures moved and even made sounds. In the context of 1975, it was completely revolutionary — very innovative for Estonian art at the time."
The works on view at Kumu come from both museums and private collections. Their arrangement in the museum' fourth-floor Project Room 3 nearly identically replicates the original display from half a century ago, giving visitors a sense of the historic exhibition's energy and impact.
"Harku 1975: Objects, Concepts" will remain open at Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn through October 2026.
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Editor: Annika Remmel, Aili Vahtla
