Wystawa Sztuki Estońskiej (Warszawa – Kraków 1939). Kontekst i recepcja

Abstrakt

The display of Estonian art held in Warsaw (Institute for the Propaganda of Art) and Cracow (Society of Friends of Fine Arts) in April‑May 1939 is discussed. The pre‑ sentation of the exhibition in Poland was prepared at the instigation of its organizer, namely the Estonian Culture Fund (Eesti Kultuurkapitali Kujutava Kunsti Sihtkapital). However, the management of the Institute for the Propaganda of Art considered the Estonian proposal as of little interest artistically, yet in view of the political impact of the event the decision was changed. The political significance of the Estonian exhibition stemmed from the endeavours of the country’s authorities who, in view of the partition of Czechoslovakia and the symptoms of the growing threat from the Soviet Union, were seeking alliances meant to defend the state’s independence, sovereignty, and neutrality. Within such an activity scheme already in the autumn of 1938 a visit of General Laidoner to Poland was planned, this meant to confirm good relations with the Republic of Poland under the new political circumstances in Europe. The exhibition of Estonian art (in early 1939 displayed in Rome and Budapest) was to add some splendour to the week’s visit of the Estonian dignitary starting on 17 April 1939. Nonetheless, despite the display rooms having been made available by the Institute for the Propaganda of Art already as of 15 April, thus allowing for the display’s arrangement and the show to be ready precisely at the time of Gen. Laidoner’s visit to Warsaw, it had not been launched before his arrival or during his stay. This does not undermine the fact that it was an event which essentially helped manifest the invariably friendly relations between both countries. Politically, the exhibition of Estonian art was at the time also important for Poland. The annexation of Zaolzie was regarded as a breach of the European status quo and since Estonians had considered Poland to be one of its guardians, the fact clearly cooled the relations between the two countries. In view of this, the manifestation of a friendly relationship with Estonia, to be unquestionably seen in the exhibition, was also desirable for Poland.

Prior to the opening of the exhibition in 1939, Estonian art had been known in Poland merely from publications: the book by Irena W. Kosmowska Estonia. The Country and People (1930), Jan Brzechwa’s article “Fine Arts in Estonia” (1935), and the essay by Leonhard Sooneberg, an Estonian historian and art critic, published in “Przegląd Polsko‑Fińsko‑Estoński” (1938). The exhibition in Warsaw and Cracow was the first and only presentation of the artistic output of Estonia in the early 20th century and it contained 208 works by 76 artists. Polish art critics showed vivid interest in and approval of the presented paintings, graphic works, and sculptures, which were almost unanimously regarded as the most interesting and valuable phenomena in Estonia’s contemporary art. The numerous reviews emphasized first of all such issues as the exposing of a national factor in art; the attitude to West European art; the latter’s impact on Estonian “national” art; and the formula of the “new/modernized” realism. However, Estonian art did not incite as much interest among Polish art critics as the art of another Baltic state, namely Latvia, shown three years before (also in Warsaw and Cracow). In strict artistic terms, the art of the Estonians may not have been as thrilling. It did, however, appeal to emotions as an artistic manifestation of the existence and activity of a small nation of a very complicated history, which was slowly, but effectively, establishing its identity in different spheres of culture, this also including fine arts. As much as the works of Estonian painters, sculptors, graphic designers may have been differently assessed, it remains an unquestionable fact that the “ambitious artistic output of a one‑million people’s nation” impressed Polish public opinion.