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Vilen Künnapu

(1948)

Vilen Künnapu who is known as an architect and artist presents predominantly large-scale acrylic paintings that have been created with a characteristic Künnapu-esque stylization and provocative use of colours. These are expressive works with a unique geometrical and symbolistic system that have consciously emphasized naivism, like a sign of the artist’s genuine and pure energy, happily spreading across the paintings. As for shapes, Künnapu utilizes the same problem-solving and work ethics as with architecture – bold colour schemes and a stylish eclecticism of various architectural elements. Egyptian pillars, palladium friezes, gothic-roman window verticals and arches that become amazingly similar in Künnapu’s interpretation. The architect as well as the artist has halted their origin, creating a new space of thought free from temporal restrictions. To walk within the rooms of Künnapu’s bright-coloured houses is as if to walk along the roofs, corridors, roads and landscapes on his paintings.

CV

Vilen Künnapu graduated from the Estonian SSR State Art Institute in 1971. Since 2000 he has been a professor at Tallinn University of Technology. In 2006–2007 he was also a professor of liberal arts at the University of Tartu.

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