The Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design Classics series has reached its 19th edition. The exhibition gives an overview of the works by designer and artist Anu Rank-Soans. For the first time Rank-Soans’s heritage of industrial ceramics and unique works is being displayed in such extent, analysing and opening up the differences and common features of these fields since late 1960s.

Anu Rank-Soans is a ceramist who has worked almost her entire professional life designing mass produced items. During her professional career, Rank-Soans has designed functional applied items as well as ceramic sculptures, pop and trash art, monumental works and installations.

After graduating cum laude from the ceramics department at ERKI (State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR) in 1967, Anu Rank-Soans went to work at the Tallinn Industrial Ceramics Factory workshop in Siimusti, Jõgeva. She ended up working in the industry for several decades: subsequently at the Pärnu Building Material Factory and also at the Tallinn Industrial Ceramics Factory. Although Rank-Soans’ applied ceramics, characterised by good proportion and simple form, have enriched our everyday environment for half a century, they still feel fresh. She introduced to mass production applied items with innovative forms and proportions, mainly designing unembellished ceramic ware with unusual shapes and often in series that could be combined. In several series she implemented a modular system, meaning that pieces could be combined to create new compositions, which also made them decorative and multifunctional.
In parallel to her work as an industrial designer, Rank-Soans participated at exhibitions with her one-off pieces. As an artist, she has displayed great respect for clay and tested various techniques for processing it. Several of her works have expanded the nature of contemporary ceramics and the potential of applied art in critically addressing important topics.

Exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, edited by Karin Vicente, photographer Madis Kurss, graphic design Stuudio Stuudio.

More information and registration to the public and educational programmes is available on the museum’s webpage.

Curator Karin Vicente (EAA Institute of Art History and Visual Culture), exhibition design Molumba architects (Karli Luik, Johan Tali, Maria Helena Luiga), graphic design Stuudio Stuudio.
Exhibition team: Kai Lobjakas, Ketli Tiitsar, Kristi Paap, Toomas Übner, Sandra Sirp, Helen Adamson, Dagmar Siida, Hille Saluäär (Antenna Translations OÜ), Refiner OÜ.

Exhibition and catalogue are supported by Estonian Cultural Endowment and AS Silikaat.

The exhibition series Classics takes place in the museum from 2000. With this series the museum wishes to highlight the work of artists and designers who have been active for a long time and whose work has been continuously outstanding.

Thank you: Estonian Artists’ Association, Pärnu Museum, Estonian Film Archive, Estonian Public Broadcasting, Art Museum of Estonia, Museum of Estonian Architecture, Estonian Academy of Arts, Conservation and Digitization Centre Kanut, Tõnis Milling, private collectors.

Publications

Publication “Classics. Anu Rank-Soans”

Gallery

Photos: Paul Kuimet