Exhibition "GROUP T / CALM EXPRESSIONISM - REVISITED"

"GROUP T / CALM EXPRESSIONISM - REVISITED" focusing on RAOUL KURVITZ / URMAS MURU and their drawings!

On Wednesday, 16.10, at 19.00, Raoul Kurvitz and Urmas Muru will open an exhibition based on their early works in Noblessner, at the address Vesilennuk 24 of the Project Room. Both authors present their new graphic series based on early drawings. In addition, graphics projecting dreamy and powerful-apocalyptic architectural forms based on the latest work of Urmas Muru will be presented for the first time.

It is difficult to say exactly what was or was not the definition of GROUP T in the sense of the exhibition today because one of the group's concepts was to set up dogmas and then immediately refute them again. The authors never wanted to define themselves too precisely - to label something already existing. In addition to everything radical and innovative, GROUP T offered many authors opportunities to exhibit their creations, and the group was also an important breeding ground where representatives of various creative fields enriched each other and the creations born through it with their presence. So we can talk more about what has grown out of GROUP T. In the winter and spring of this year, it was possible to visit the large-scale joint exhibition of Italian and Estonian authors "Borderless Universe in Their Minds: Italian Transavantgarde and Estonian Calm Expressionism” at the KUMU Art Museum. This exhibition opened the back of the transavantgarde expression to our art audience and thus shed light on the early work of the two founding members of RÜHM T, Urmas Muru and Raoul Kurvitz. Cold expressionism became the common denominator of the described art movement. "Speaking of the KUMU exhibition, the creations of the authors formed a separate part of the whole exhibition, one could even say that it was a monolithic block that rose like an ice block into the light of the art museum's spotlights and towered above the world-famous Italian authors," comments the curator of the exhibition Meelis Tammemägi and adds: "we decided to revive a small piece of it with the authors from a powerful exhibition - the focus is on the drawings. Through this exhibition, we also want to pay more attention to the creations created during the GROUP T period."

Raoul Kurvitz (b.1961) graduated in 1984 in architecture from the Estonian National Art Institute. Since 2015 he’s been an associate professor of arts at the Tallinn University of Technology. Raoul Kurvitz defines himself as an interdisciplinary artist, also making art with music.

Urmas Muru (b. 1961) graduated in 1984 with a speciality in architecture from the Estonian National Art Institute. "I am an architect and an artist. I live mainly in Tallinn, sometimes in Berlin. As an artist, I am an abstractionist and an expressionist. As an architect, more a rationalist," the author describes himself.

GROUP T has also included Lilian Mosolainen, Tiina Tammetalu, Peeter Pere, Hasso Krull, Tarvo Hanno Varres, Maria Avdjuško, Ene-Liis Semper and others.

ERR Archive / EESTI KUNST 14 / GROUP T - https://arhiiv.err.ee/video/vaata/eesti-kunst-ruhm-t 

The exhibition can be visited in Tallinn at Vesilennuki 24, Noblessner during Mon-Fri, 12-8pm. The exhibition will remain open until 04.11.2024.

The exhibition has been prepared and curated by Liina Raud and Meelis Tammemägi.

The artworks are printed in the lithography technique at the UBU NOIR print shop. The exhibition has been curated in cooperation with Liina Raud Fine Art Gallery, and the event has been made possible by cooperation with RAOUL KURVITZ, URMAS MURU, UBU NOIR, NOBLESSNER, NOBA of the Estonian Contemporary Art Center, Postimees Group, PõHJALA Brewery and UUS MAA real estate office.