Hidden Worlds Expanding: Eastern European Outsider Art

Works of outsider art are often impossible to categorise under a specific style, define geographically or place in a specific era. However, they do possess a characteristic universality and deep sincerity, with no pretence to ambition. They can also be uncompromising: in some cases they serve as the only method of communication between their creator and the wider world. The ‘Hidden Worlds Expanding’ exhibition is to be held simultaneously in Viljandi, Tartu and Valga. 

The Tartu University Museum will be showcasing the exhibition’s earliest historical works from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some originate from the university’s Psychiatry Clinic archives, but the majority are from the psychiatric art collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the collection of the Silesian Museum in Katowice. Well-known artists represented in the exhibition include Edmund Monsiel (1897-1962), a true classic of outsider art, and Pál István (1888-1944), who has been called the Hungarian Van Gogh. ‘Hidden Worlds Expanding’ forms part of the main programme of Tartu 2024 – European Capital of Culture. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue and educational programme. The exhibition is being supported by Tartu 2024, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Viljandi City Government, the Liszt Institute in Tallinn, the embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Estonia, the embassy of Austria in Estonia and Kettuki RY. 

Collections: Silesian Museum in Katowice (Poland); Kondas Centre (Estonia); Pavel Konečný’s private collection and the open studio collection of Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic); Art Brut Serbia collection (Serbia); the psychiatric art collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary); Koprivnica City Museum (Croatia); Kettuki RY Hämeenlinna art studio (Finland); Art Cru gallery (Germany); and Lebenshilfe OÖ Gmunden open art studio (Austria).