Olav Maran 1933 Still-Life with a Grapefruit and an Egg. 2022

The year of completion of Olav Maran’s Vaikelu greibi ja munaga (Still-life with Grapefruit and Egg) is not so important, it is a request for eternity in painting. The implicit meaning of this painting is to remind us of the basic spiritual and physical values of life, which will not change as long as man remains man with their basic needs and the succession of generations. However, the repeated egg shape in Maran’s paintings seems to refer not only to form and content, but also to the art of the artist’s generational colleague Ülo Sooster. The still-lifes painted by Olav Maran celebrate seemingly simple daily objects related to food and the kitchen, and rise above the everyday in terms of their universality.