Dulwich Picture Gallery

A solo exhibition of Konrad Mägi opened on 23rd of March at the prestigious Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. Curator Kathleen Soriano has selected over 60 works from Estonian national museums and private collections, offering an overview of Mägi’s portraiture and his art created in Norway, Saaremaa, and Southern Estonia.

The museum presents Mägi as an artist who constantly reinvented his style; although he was influenced by a wide variety of styles, he developed a distinctive style that was bold, experimental and deeply connected to the surrounding world. This is the first Konrad Mägi exhibition in an English-speaking venue. The opening was attended by President of the Republic of Estonia Alar Karis, Minister of Culture Heidy Purga, and Estonian Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Sven Sakkov.

The Dulwich Picture Gallery is England’s oldest public gallery, having opened as early as 1817. In recent decades, it has emerged as one of the most important museums in Europe for showcasing modernism from the first half of the 20th century, boldly introducing previously undiscovered artists to the public alongside renowned masters. For instance, Dulwich was the first in England to showcase the work of the French Impressionist Berthe Morisot (2023) and the art of Australia’s so-called Grosvenor School (2019), and it also hosted an exhibition of the Lithuanian modernist M.K. Čiurlionis (2023).

Curator Kathleen Soriano visited Estonia several times while putting the exhibition together. She is a distinguished curator who served for 17 years as Head of Exhibitions and Collections at the National Portrait Gallery. Later she worked as Head of Exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts, where she organized exhibitions featuring Van Gogh, Degas, and David Hockney, among others.

The Konrad Mägi Foundation is a partner of the Art Museum of Estonia and the Dulwich Picture Gallery for the London exhibition and, together with the NG Investeeringud, a major sponsor of the exhibition.

The exhibition will remain open until July 12th.