Kalju Nagel
(1918–2005)
Early Spring Winter Weather. 1957
Oil, canvas. 60 x 81 cm (framed)
price 6 500
Many artists in the 1950s worked not so much for the public as for themselves. While nowadays artists’ works are usually shown in exhibitions, back then many works were painted in the knowledge that they would not be exhibited to the public and had a different function. This delicate and sensitive landscape is painted without any pretence of innovation. Nagel’s main goal in art is to create a positive atmosphere through the experience of nature. The painting is divided into three horizontal zones, with the snow-covered valley floor with its small melted holes being the first zone, the densely brush-painted forest line the second, and the open sky behind them in the background the third. In this way, by going deeper and further into space, Nagel evokes spaciousness and thus optimism.