Alvar Aalto – A Gentler Structure for Life is a photographic exhibition presenting Aalto’s architecture from the 1930s to the 1970s. In 1997, the Alvar Aalto Museum’s photographer Maija Holma visited many of Aalto’s buildings in Finland and abroad photographing them for a new book to mark the Alvar Aalto centenary. As well as the book, the Alvar Aalto Museum collated a touring exhibition with the same name that has been shown in many parts of the world.

The earliest building in the exhibition is the Riihitie House, built in Helsinki’s Munkkiniemi and completed in 1936, which now operates as a museum. There are also a number of photographs of the famous Villa Mairea, a contemporary of the Riihitie House.

Now you can visit the exhibition in Estonia at the Tartu County Museum.

The photographs communicate not only the wear and tear of normal life on the buildings, but also their timeless language of form, a feeling for materials, the interaction between architecture and nature, and a sensitivity which shines through the severity of Modernism.

Further information:

Alvar Aalto – A Gentler Structure for Life

27.05-20.08.2011 Tartumaa Muuseum – the Tartu County Museum

muuseum@tartumaamuuseum.ee

www.tartumaamuuseum.ee