Proceedings of the Art Museum of Estonia 10[15] Symbolist Art and the Baltic Sea Region 1880–1930

This issue of the Proceedings of the Art Museum of Estonia includes topics that were raised at the international conference “Symbolist Art and the Baltic Sea Region 1880–1930”, held at the Kumu Art Museum from 31 January to 2 February 2019. The anthology includes papers based on the presentations of seven conference speakers.

The conference and anthology were inspired by the exhibition Âmes sauvages. Le symbolisme dans les pays baltes (Wild Souls. Symbolism in the Art of the Baltic States), which included the most important Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian artists from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was organised at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris in the spring and summer of 2018. Later, a similar exhibition was mounted at the Kumu Art Museum, as well as this year at the Lithuanian Art Museum and the Latvian National Museum of Art. The exhibition at the prestigious Parisian museum, organised in collaboration with the French curator Rodolphe Rapetti, introduced the classics of Baltic art to an international audience and focused international attention on them for the first time. Introducing the works of Baltic artists to a wider Western European audience was an important step in consolidating their affiliation with the mainstream of European Symbolism. At the same time, the exhibition clearly highlighted the individual characteristics of the Baltic artists based on their origins and environment.