Metal artist and sculptor Kaie Parts dies at 86

Estonian metal artist and sculptor Kaie Parts has died aged 86, ERR reported. She was born on September 21, 1940, and died on October 26, 2026.

Parts entered an art institute in 1962 and graduated in metal art in 1967. Her teachers included Ede Kurrel, Salme Raunam and Lilian Linnaks.

She joined Estonia’s art scene in the late 1960s. Her work featured massive decorative hollow forms and candlesticks, made using innovative welding and surface-treatment techniques, including melting brass onto steel and iron. She favoured aluminium and experimented with brightly coloured enamel decoration.

In the 1980s, Parts turned to monumental work. Her abstract metal sculptures combined techniques learned at the institute with her own vision for shaping space. She later returned increasingly to jewellery. Her pieces have been given to high-ranking visitors to Estonia and are held in museum and private collections in Estonia and abroad.

In 1994, a group of metal artists opened A-Gallery, a joint sales gallery in Tallinn’s Old Town. Parts was a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association from 1971 and a founding member of the Estonian Metal Artists’ Association from 1973.

Parts won the top prize at an international monumental sculpture competition at the Tretyakov Gallery in 1991. In 1997, she received a Tallinn city prize at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design exhibition “Useless Things”. Her solo exhibitions were held in Estonia and elsewhere in the world.