Exhibition > Past > Haus Gallery
Haus Gallery 05.08.2022
Toomas Altnurme
ABSTRACT REVELATION
Abstract revelation! Abstractionism in arts has taken many different forms over time, and today we no longer doubt its existence; rather, we ponder what in abstractionism speaks to us more or less, what colours and textures inspire us or what kind of abstractionism our consciousness/subconscious can or cannot grasp. Toomas Altnurme’s paintings and sculptures also speak to us, in which we look for the personal intrigue and peculiarities of today’s artistic expression.
The emergence of abstractionism in arts actually began, to some extent, as early as in the second half of the 19th century, when the Impressionists began to abstract the technical techniques of Realist painting – blurring the contours of the world with a brush, moving away from the historical theme of heroism and more towards depictions of the rather immediate context of life, such as parks, streets, and ordinary people. The Cubists, in turn, fragmented this world from corner to corner; the realities of the Fauvist`s compositions were built up by the all-dominant colour, and so on, up to the abstract Expressionists, whose paintings transformed everything imaginable into its emotional and spontaneously created essence, only showing the viewer the movements and rhythms of colour…
Who is Toomas Altnurme in this ever-lasting game of abstraction, to which his colourful paintings and sculptures in the Haus Gallery exhibition hall attempt to respond?
What makes every contemporary Abstractionist interesting is their individuality; their ability to intrigue the viewer. Altnurme intrigues with the mobility of colours and compositions, as well as in sculptures with a constructivist playfulness. The artist uses industrial and urban metal elements, combining them into a new object and covering them with neon paints.
Altnurme’s paintings, however, are perhaps the colours themselves, emphatically and directly – splashes of colour blending and flowing into each other. As if the surface of the canvas were water, which in its natural movement could mix and mould these colours on its own, giving the impression of the possibility that the colours could still change their places and contours in the finished work. At times, the colours pile up on Altnurme’s painting surfaces in such abundantly thick layers that they create illusions of landscape forms.
Visionary abstractions – this is the effect of Altnurme’s individual works or series of lines of paintings. Moving from one image to another and back again, the viewer may be struck by a certain visual hallucination that the colours evoke with their sometimes wild but self-evident play.
Toomas Altnurme can be considered a multimedia artist who has worked in the area of painting, installation, sculpture, photography, mixed media, and digital art. Altnurme has an exotic artistic education and life. He studied arts for 7 years in Asia, at Rajamangala University in Thailand and at Seoul National University in Kyonghee, South Korea, and acquired his Master’s degree at Hongik University in Seoul. Since 2014, Altnurme has been working as a lecturer in fine arts at the United Arab Emirates University. Toomas Altnurme is an internationally active artist who has taken part in nearly 50 sculpture symposiums and whose paintings and sculptures, including monumental forms, have been exhibited around the world – in the US, the State of South Carolina; Canada, Quebec; Chile, Carretas; Brazil, Brusque; Costa Rica, Cahuita; Taiwan, Shimen; Japan, Shinjuku; Thailand, Bangkok; Indonesia, Bali; Singapore; South Korea, Seoul; Denmark, Hojer; France, Saint Henry, etc. In Estonia, his works can be found in the Art Museum of Estonia both in Tallinn and Tartu, as well as in the urban space of Pärnu, Paide, and Tallinn. Toomas Altnurme is a member of the Estonian Painters’ Association.
Piia Ausman – exhibition curator