The exhibition “Balance. Helge Pihelga’s wall panels and metal forms from the 1960s–1970s” is open until Sunday June 15th on the 2nd floor permanent exhibition.

This display features mostly copper wall panels from the 1960s, made using repoussé techniques, as well as decorative copper and brass vessels with simple forms. These works are united by a carefully composed and reductive design vocabulary, often consisting of just a few repeated elements and motifs. The ornamentation includes both geometric forms and references to nature. In Pihelga’s hands, this carefully chosen and directed simplicity becomes remarkably powerful.

Helge Pihelga graduated in 1951 from the State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR with a degree in metalwork. After completing her studies, she began working at the metalwork studio of the Tallinn Art Products Factory, serving for many years as its artistic director. From 1959, she continued as a freelance artist. She began exhibiting in 1951, and her most recent solo exhibition took place in 2003 at the Kristjan Raud House Museum.

After the exhibition ends, you can explore Helge Pihelgas’s broader body of work, which is part of the ETDM collection, in more detail through the Estonian Museums Information System at muis.ee!