Art Museum of Estonia
7.02-29.03.2008




Place: Kristjan Raud House Museum
Additional information: 125 years passed from the birth of an artist, writer and cultural historian Aleksander Tassa this summer.

The apex of Tassa’s artistic output fell on the Young Estonia (Noor-Eesti) period, when he, together with Fr. Tuglas, K. Mägi, N. Triik and A. Starkopf discovered themselves and the world. He took interest in a number of things and, as a result, attempted to record as much knowledge and impressions on art, literature and music as possible during his studying and wondering years (1906–1914, with his main haven in Paris).

Speaking of art, he was equally interested in modern Art Noveau-Symbolistic trends as well as in Antique Greece and the exotic countries, Malaysia in particular. In literature, Tassa’s fantasy was nurtured by legends and biblical stories; in art, he was mostly inspired by nature. The way one of his favourite composers Debussy could picture a soft breeze sweeping over water, Tassa, too, attempted to capture the noble elegance of the French spirit in his Versailles-views. His summer trips to the Åland Islands (1906 and 1913) served different moods. Here pine-trees became one of his favourite motifs, often taking odd figural forms, as if dancing. Often his nature moods became improvisational, abstracts compositions.
In the period of the Republic of Estonia Tassa focused on organizational work. He was the founder of the Pallas Art Society and Pallas Art School and dealt with the administration of the art collections of museums. He also continued with writing fiction that had begun in his Paris-period.

Much of his versatile work was destroyed during the war. After war, Tassa lived his restless creative life in Põllu Street in Nõmme, a garden suburb of Tallinn. He continued developing his plot he bought in 1935 in Vasalemma, where he planned to build a studio with a glass ceiling, establish an exotic garden, grow meadow mushrooms, publish a cook-book and write a musical piece "Kalevipoeg and Weather Fairy". But all was cur short by the death of the artist in spring 1955.

Thus, it is obvious that Tassa’s creative heritage cannot be extensive. It is fragmentary and sketchy. Yet, Aleksander Tassa occupies a well-established position in the modernization and development of Estonian art in the 1920’s.

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Art Museum of Estonia
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