The Estonian art world has suffered a painful loss. Anu Liivak, a distinguished art historian and the director of the Kumu Art Museum, has died.
Anu Liivak studied art history at the Repin Art Institute in St. Petersburg from 1972 to 1977. After graduating, she worked at the Art Museum of Estonia, initially as a research secretary and from 1990 to 1991 as the Director of Research. Her interest in the modernist art legacy and contemporary art, as well as her ability to bring interesting foreign exhibitions to Estonia (the works of Victor Vasarely and others) became apparent at that time. In 1990, she enthusiastically participated, along with her colleague Eha Komissarov, in the founding of the Vaal Gallery, Estonia’s first private art gallery, providing it with a clear artistic policy right from the start. Her work as the intendant at the Tallinn Art Hall between 1991 and 2001 allowed her to execute many daring ideas. One of the most extraordinary was the Swiss artist George Steinmann’s thought sculpture, The Revival of the Space (1992–1995), which involved the restoration of the Art Hall, which had been designed by E. Kuusik and A. Soans in 1934. For this project, Anu Liivak was awarded the Cultural Prize of the Republic of Estonia in 1996. While the project was being completed, she furthered her studies in Helsinki and Lisbon, and wrote her MA thesis, Between West and East. Estonian Painting 1960–1990, which she defended at the Tallinn Art University in 1996. The exhibition programme at the Art Hall was so lively and diverse that she was chosen to be the managing director of the Retretti Art Centre in Finland.
Between 2002 and 2009, she had a fruitful career there organising exhibitions on the works of the great artists of the 20th century (e.g. Jean Dubuffet), as well as Russian and Finnish classics (e.g. Pekka Halonen), and introducing Estonian graphic art. The exhibition she curated of Peeter Mudiste’s works at the Kunsthalle Helsinki in 2005 generated a great deal of excitement.
Beginning in 2009, she was the director of the Kumu Art Museum. The museum’s substantive exhibition programme, which attracts thousands of people of all ages to the museum, is to a great extent the fruit of her labour. Anu Liivak has produced a large number of research articles, catalogues and books about Estonian artists (Ruth Tulving 1994, Mati Karmin 2003 and others). Her last large undertaking was the Lepo Mikko survey exhibition at Kumu in 2013 and its thorough catalogue. In 2006, she received the Estonian Order of the White Cross, 4th Class.
An energetic and active person, she belonged to many organisations. From 2011 to 2013, she was the chair of the Fine and Applied Arts Foundation of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, and thereafter a member of the Endowment’s supervisory board. She was a member of the Finnish Tuglas Society and the Tallinn 2011 Creative Council. She was also a member of the Estonian Artists Association, International Association of Art Critics, and Estonian Society of Art Historians and Curators.
Her colleagues will remember Anu Liivak as a capable and determined person, full of life and optimism, friendly and with a wonderful sense of humour. We express our deepest condolences to her family.
Art Museum of Estonia
Estonian Ministry of Culture
Estonian Society of Art Historians and Curators
Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Tallinn Art Hall Foundation
Tartu Art Museum
Museum of Estonian Architecture
Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design
Estonian Artists Association
