The Kondas Center of Naive Art (Kondase Keskus) – Viljandi (Estonia) en

The Kondas Center of Naive Art is well worth a visit.

There are many exhibitions on at once, and the George Kondas pieces are there permanently- hence the name of the center- one of the most famous Estonian painters, originally from Viljandi.

The entrance fee is 2 euros for adults, 1 euro for  kids, 4 euros for families.

I arrived in Viljandi on a Monday and the museum was closed. I went to the Tourism Office and introduced myself, and they nicely called the museum’s curator who offered to show me around.

I had the chance to see the museum alone, but I assume that there is rarely throngs of people, and that it is easy to walk around in peace.

The museum is in a typical Viljandian wooden house.

The Paul Kondas Permanent Collection

This 1965 painting is his most well known: “Maasikasööjad”, the Strawberry Eaters. It’s this painting that gave the city its symbol: the strawberry.

Check out the video I made, you can see the curator showing Kondas’ most important paintings.

The temporary exhibitions:

– John Digby, an American specialized in collage

– an exhibit on an encyclopedia illustrator

– A stool exhibition

– the painter Ellinor Aiki

Finally what I loved was the animation created by Edmunds Jansons around Irina Pilke’s autobiographic drawing sketch pads: she relates her story under the Soviet occupation with humor and distance, a gem.

Little Birds Diary from Atom Art on Vimeo.