Art&Tonic opens exhibition of Enno Hallek’s early work

Art&Tonic gallery in Tallinn has opened an exhibition of early works by Estonian-born artist Enno Hallek, focusing on pieces from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s, ERR reported.

The exhibition opened on November 13. This year marks 95 years since Hallek’s birth, and the year-end will mark one year since his death.

Hallek grew up in Rohuküla, near Haapsalu, the son of a fisherman. Rainbows and sunsets he saw at sea became early artistic impressions and recurring themes in his work.

His family escaped by boat across the sea in 1943. His father took a pair of oars with him; three decades later, they became the basis for Hallek’s best-known work, “My Oars from Estonia and Memories” (1975). The work, made up of ten painted oars, is in the collection of Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, alongside works by Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso.

Hallek studied at Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Art from 1953 to 1958 and held his first solo exhibition in 1963. Unlike American pop artists, he was not interested in consumer culture or advertising. His subjects included hands, windows, fish, oars, saws, mirrors, pop-style landscapes and sunsets, combined with memories of Estonia and studies of colour.

He was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1975. From 1981 to 1991, he was a professor of painting and head of the Department of Monumental Art at Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Art. With Åke Pallarp, he designed Stockholm Stadium metro station. The Estonian Art Museum held his first solo exhibition in Estonia at Kadriorg Palace in 1990.

The exhibition will remain open at Art&Tonic until the end of the year.