Exhibition > Past > Haus Gallery

Haus Gallery 24.08.2004-24.09.2004

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When I was still young

Early works by Marko Mäetamm.

In the artistic circles are not at all rare such exhibitions, were are exposed the early works of a widely well-known painter. So, parallelly to the Marko Mäetamm’s exhibition in the Ühispank Gallery are exposed the works by Mare Vint, which have been accomplished at the end of the 1960ies and even though it would be quite inappropriate, of this couple can be drawn strange conclusions also regarding this exposition. Because the joint part which can be shared is too small: works by Mare Vint belong to the chrestomathy of art history, they have continuously been awarded - reproduced, they have found their place in the joint memory of art lovers and nobody passes these works, when there are talks either of Vint herself of the vanguard of the 1960ies. But Mäetamm represents everything that Vint does not: several of these works are exposed here for the first time, they have been unknown for art history during the last fifteen years and when there are talks of either Mäetamm or the Estonian art of the beginning of the 1990ies, nobody refers to these ones. We could even claim that we are dealing with works, being placed outside the memory scope of art history, which will never become a part of its official side.

By today Marko Mäetamm has of course become widely recognised, during last years he has collected the cream of the local art awards and he has continuously participated at international exhibitions. But when Mare Vint has until now stuck to the style she chose in the 1960ies, then Mäetamm has by today made several significant turns. His movement trajectory involves pop-like large-surface paintings, but also cartoon – style large oil paintings with Mäetamm’s personal mythology, laconic black humour pictures, pseudoconceptual visions, some videos, some joint works, etc. The person Mäetamm is today, is softly speaking very different from the Mäetamm at the beginning of the 1990ies.

It is true that we can examine the current exhibition only as an exposition, which nicely presents us a forgotten period in the creation of one artist. Looking for certain “routes” one may (but also does not have to) be senseless, but it is even more important to ask, which are the actual values of the exposition? If needed, we could start searching, whether here are refleced the grounds of artistic education 20 years ago, especially if we know that Mäetamm was suggested to finish the school in three years instead of the traditional four ones? Or can we watch the exhibition without any claims – as something, which filters out a certain section from Mäetamm’s creation? Or – it seems actually the most natural reaction – we shall not ask, what this exhibition is about, but we think back of our own youth and ask, why it did not include Sinine Marge (Blue Marge) and the new Jesus.

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