Estonian

Two Estonian artists – poet Elo Viiding and painter Santa Zukker – are trying to disrupt how people see art to make art exhibitions more engaging by combining paintings and poetry; their exhibition, “Vastukaja” (“Echo”), runs until 18 July at a piano bar in Tallinn.

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen,” Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance, reportedly said.

The organisers of the Birgitta Festival presented the highlights of the festival, which will take place from 6 to 14 August. Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" and Sibelius's music for the play "Tempest" will be staged in the ruins of Pirita Convent, Finnish productions of "Black Monk" and "Uniko", and a new work, the opera "Lalli", begun by Veljo Tormis and completed by Rasmus Puur.

Estonian artist Konrad Mägi’s painting “Rome” sold for €302,000 at the Swedish auction house, Bukowskis – a new record for Estonian art.

Mägi’s “Rome” was on the auction for an estimated price of €35,000, but its hammer price exceeded the estimate for almost ten times. The painting had once belonged to Aleksander Varma – a former prime minister of the Estonian government in exile.

Another of Mägi’s painting, untitled, was also sold – for €238,000. According to Bukowskis, both works were probably made during the early 1920s.