Gallery: Seaplane Harbor Museum's new exhibition showcases 'The call of the sea'
A new exhibition has opened at the Seaplane Harbor Museum in Tallinn, honoring artists across generations and countries who answered the sea's call with brushstrokes.
Titled "Mere kutse. Eesti Meremuuseumi kunstikogu" ("The Call of the Sea. Estonian Maritime Museum's Art Collection"), items date back to the 1930s, when the museum was founded and at a time when Estonia was an independent republic.
As well as paintings, models, photographs and documents, paintings also found their way into the overall collection.
"For us, art is primarily a visual document, a historical source or, above all, informative material. We do not collect works meant to dazzle with beauty or captivate the viewer with a play of colors; instead, we want them to help convey, to some extent, the story of Estonian maritime history that the Estonian Maritime Museum seeks to tell and preserve," said curator and keeper of the art collection Laura Jamsja.
Numbering more than 900 works, the collection today is one of the most distinctive in Estonia's art landscape – not least because most of the authors represented were not professional artists, and mostly earned their living from the sea.
"The artists in our collection are people who found their profession in maritime fields as captains, sailors or naval officers; there are also clergymen and house painters, yet something about the calling of the sea inspired them to capture their experiences in oil paintings or watercolors," Jamsja went on.
With the help of AI, a special corner has been set up for younger visitors to the exhibition, which is also accessible to people with disabilities, including with sign language explanations to audio description. Some of the works can also be experienced kinesthetically.
"When we created these tactile exhibits, they always have to be tested with representatives of the target group, and our great colleague, who is non-sighted and always helps us with exhibitions, felt out these exhibits, and their first reaction was: 'They are so beautiful!' So the concept of beauty truly is universal," project manager Kadi Karine explained.
An accompanying book has been published, offering a more detailed overview of the fate and content of the art collection.
The maritime museum's site in English is here.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Karmen Rebane
Source: "Aktuaalne kaamera"
