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Art in restaurants

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Art and taverns have in some ways been linked throughout the centuries. Taverns, restaurants and cafés are places for communication, places for meeting up, places that create an atmosphere where many artists, writers and musicians have stood for their principles, let their ideas fly, and found people who think the same way.

On the picture: Sketch London W1

Flemish artists of the 16th and 17th centuries painted tavern scenes that reflected the social atmosphere of that time. They created a non-idealised genre, a true description of poverty and simplicity: peasants in taverns playing cards, smoking tobacco, and simply boasting. Next to beautiful sacred Christian pictures this was something else; a revolution. Back then, art on a tavern wall was not common, but later it became used more.

France in the beginning of the 20th century is a wonderful example of how art found its place in restaurant interiors. Famous restaurant La Colomne d’Or in Saint Paul de Vence in southern France also offers this kind of atmosphere today. Saint Paul de Vence is known as a town with peculiar art, longed-for historical romance which has the touch of all eras. The art collection of La Colomne d’Or is impressive, having begun with agreements with artists who nailed their pictures onto the wall and left them there, thus ensuring free lunches in their life of poverty. Picasso, Miro, Braque and Chagall have become the image of this place. La Colomne d’Or keeps adding to its collection even today, but probably not with poor artists in return for food, but rather to continue the process that was once started naturally.

Kronenhalle in Zurich, Switzerland, is another example of where the past owners of the restaurant were in touch with artists. The restaurant still has a rare collection of original pieces, mostly by Marc Chagall, but also by Alberto Giacometti. There are many other analogues and today modern art, both photo and film, has found its way into restaurants. Julian Niccolini, one of the co-owners of Four Seasons in New York has commented: “Art in a restaurant is like an extra attraction to bring more people there. The restaurant business is very competitive.” Already in 1958, a collection of Mark Rothko’s works was borrowed to be exhibited in the Four Seasons restaurant in New York.

How about art in Estonian restaurants? Largely, it is random and of course the tradition is different here. Throughout the years, Haus Galerii has had dialogues with owners of newly founded restaurants many times to discuss how to link art with the interior, the principles that should be used, how and to what extent. For a longer period, we organised art exhibitions in the Bonaparte restaurant.  Several contemporary young artists have stepped up with their works in some restaurants thanks to their own contacts and initiative. Recently, Jane Remm’s exhibition, which was also known at Haus Galerii, was set up in the restaurant Boheem.

The most so-called “art gallery type” restaurant is Art Priori in Tallinn Old Town, which was designed for art from the beginning. The interior design has taken into account special lighting solutions and next to the interior, inspired by beautiful Gothic architecture, the art is the restaurant’s most important design element and creator of atmosphere. Here the art has been introduced by the restaurant’s investor who is an art collector and patron and who was looking for a wider output for art. Compared to many grand art restaurants all over the world, Art Priori is a rather unique place. Especially because here, art is not simply a random beginning of something or a later addition to the interior, but the initial plan. This is how it was meant to be in the first place: an art restaurant. The whole concept has been noted and the interior has also received an annual award from the Estonian Association of Interior Architects.

Art Priori is a place where art primarily talks to the visitor. The restaurant’s dining rooms have different exhibitions almost every 3 to 5 months. The objective is to bring together the audience and high art, create art opportunities outside the galleries and museum halls. When the exhibitions change, the mood of the interior also changes. Each exhibition creates new rhythms in the room. Today, Art Priori has exhibited Estonian contemporary paintings and photo art as well as old masters. For the summer of 2017, the restaurant has become a kind of museum where you can see valuable original paintings from German and Flemish masters who were known in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the kind of paintings you cannot even see in the museum collections in Estonia. Such places create extra value for the entire urban space.

Public spaces give many options to deliver one or another important subject, message, or idea: rooms to meet up, celebrate important events in your life or spend time with friends and companions. Art in any public space gives it an intellectual dimension. You can be convinced that it is so by visiting La Colomne d’Or in Provence, which became art-minded by chance or by visiting some more modern places in London, like Sketch London W1 (where panoramic art screens are linked to a sound installation) or the restaurant Lucio in Sydney (the collection of which includes more than 500 works of Australia’s leading artists) or our own Art Priori in Tallinn where exhibitions change regularly.

When visiting restaurants, notice the art in them!

Piia Ausman, head of Haus Gallery

Haus Gallery has cooperated with the new Web magazine Edasi (in English Forward) (Edasi.org). In the weekly column we talk about something interesting and noteworthy in the field of art to Estonian readers. The Forward way of thinking, positive world view, intelligent journey with the reader through meaningful moments, slow journalism, which offers counterpoise to the racy information barrage, which invites to stop, feel and think along just as art inspires Haus Gallery to write stories for Forward. 

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