ESTONIAN GRAPHICS

Good Morning!

If there is a choice, the start of the day should be rather hopeful. This includes waking up slowly, morning rituals with water, being with yourself, mentally and physically preparing for an active day. To such a great morning belong the graphic page "Ärkvel" by Evald Okas, intimate works of a child and a woman by Eduard Wiiralt, followed by the idyllic visions of Enno Ootsingu and Kaljo Põllu.

Picturesque Graphics

In general, the word "graphics" brings to mind a black and white image based on a linear line, where the page has passed through a printing press and the work is reproducible. That's all correct. But we could also highlight the so-called picturesque graphics, where the contours are scattered, the work would be as if painted with a brush, colorful, exuding softness and soulfulness in a good way. Both one and the other direction are enabled by different graphic techniques, which professionals master perfectly to convey an idea.

Sometimes the so-called pictorial picturesque graphics are chosen by artists who are known as mainly painters, for example Jaan Grünberg from Pallas or old master Evald Okas in this selection. Eduard Wiiralt also painted some paintings as a young artist, but he finally chose to be a graphic artist. Here an interesting comparison arises between the works of Wiiralt and Herald Eelma. Aleksander Peek, Erich Pehap, Märt Laarmann bring emotional warmth to graphics, as does Silvi Liiva. However, Ülo Emmus and Allex Kütt help to remind us that there are also all kinds of trends in painting itself, for example slide painting, which is introduced here in a circle instead of graphics.

Through the Eyes of the Architect

The title work of this chapter is "The Architect" by Ilmar Torni. Due to his education and profession, an architect looks at buildings and the city in a different way than those who are not used to analyzing public space, relationships between buildings, stratification of eras in urban construction, the spatial layout of a house, etc. In this subgroup, architect-educated Leonhard Lapin analyzes Tallinn's medieval old town as a special environment in a constructivist way, while painter and graphic artist Evald Okas seems to think along with the creative work of his architect son. Natalie Mei and Illimar Paul are also focused on architecture.

Beautiful Homeland

"Beautiful homeland" sounds like retro - and it comes from the title of a series of postcards by the Estonian photographer Carl Sarap (1892-1942). Sarap captured the places of Estonia in the 1930s in a bright and loving way, but today, thanks to his photos, we can get an idea of ​​many destroyed cultural layers. For example, Sarap photographed the baroque city of Narva and its architecture, which was bombed to the ground on May 6, 1944. Carl Sarap's photos got a a continuation project between the 1980s and 1990s, when photo luminary Peeter Tooming re-photographed these same views under the titles "50 years later" and "55 years later" in a very changed time.

In today's even more changed modern times, one might ask, is it possible to re-achieve Carl Sarap's homeland-loving gaze, from which the spiritually globalizing and urbanizing Estonian seems to be distancing itself more and more? Perhaps the works of local artists will show the way? Kaljo Põllu's mythical view of the Estonian landscape differs from the practical-poetic view of Günther Reindorff, yet both artists feel the same sympathy for what is depicted. Peeter Ulas, Alo Hoidre and Mare Vint capture a special island existence, to which Evald Okas adds a view of the stormy sea. The more modern motif of Marje Üksis still reflects the same beautiful homeland.

Kristjan Raud, a gem in art history

The work of Kristjan Raud reaching the auction is a relatively rare situation. There are more gems of art history in this offer, for example the graphics of Eduard Wiiralt, which have been highlighted before, but this time let's focus on Kristjan Raud. Four monographs have been published about his work: Rasmus Kangropool "Kristjan Raud" (Kunst 1961), Lehti Viiroja "Kristjan Raud 1865—1943. Creation and expressions of thought" (Art, 1981), Mai Levin "Kristjan and Paul Raud" (Estonian Art Museum 2006), Mai Levin "Kristjan Raud – a great artist and builder of national culture" (2021). Kristjan Raud´s pedagogical and art political activities, writings and creations at the beginning of the 20th century are like an anchor on which the Estonian art world relied in later decades.

Surrealism

In 2024, art museums in many countries will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Surrealism Manifesto. Andrė Breton's manifesto of 1924 can also be read online in English as one of the main texts of 20th century art. There have been bigger and smaller surrealism exhibitions in Estonia this year too, so let's present the selection of works here on the wave crest of it all.

The Soviet era was particularly favorable for surrealist artistic endeavors in both Estonian art and Moscow's nonconformist art, because the surrounding society with its contradictory propaganda and strange taboos sometimes seemed absurd to a thinking person. It can be said that as soon as the 1990s arrived and the old taboos and propaganda disappeared, you could watch pornography on the Internet and advertisements forced a sexualized approach to consumer goods, surrealism transformed into something else. At times, the search for documents about reality itself became relevant in art.

This selection contains three graphic pages from the 1970s, which prove that the surrealist feeling could have spread even among those artists who did not manifest it directly and did not participate in a thematic grouping. Jüri Arrak, Ado Lill, Vello Vinn and Urmas Ploomipuu all belong to more or less the same generation that matured in the context of the artistic innovations of the 1960s. A dreamy and strange interpretation of reality pervades these works.

Security

What is being thought and talked about the most in Estonia right now? It's about security, isn't it? Visually, some powerful images in the selection of works here could represent this - Jüri Arrak's father lion, Raul Meel's hatched Estonia, as well as Vive Toll's ode to spiritual wisdom gleaned from books. 

Work and Whistle

The song from the well-known fairy tale "Work and whistle go together" instills the forward-looking aspect of meaningful work. The image of being in the flow of work, a process where the person doing the work knows what and why he is doing, is created. It is good to see when one works voluntarily and for oneself, not under compulsion or for a stranger. This kind of work could be the most desirable regarding the mentioned field and topic. Richard Sagrits and Henno Arrak depict shipbuilding and finished ships. In this field, fanatics of their field mostly operate in the best sense - the sea is not a natural element of everyone's life. Ships have their own ship's whistle, as the nautical dictionary tells us, and the whistle has specific uses. So let's imagine the different sound effects of the ship's whistle next to these graphic pages.

Learning to Enjoy

The nation, which historically belongs to the harsh northern climate and the Lutheran cultural context that pursues austerity, has seen the key to its survival in endless work. Real enjoyment is not particularly learned, or if it is, it consists in activities that are not understood from the outside, or in which one tends to go overboard. Can it be said that before starting to enjoy it, one had to become aware of it in comparison with other cultures, for example French culture, or from books? There are various micropolitics in the representation of pleasure in art. Ernst Tiido and Richard Kaljo depict bathing women - the most common motif in French early modernist painting. Ruth Tulving, a global Estonian during the Cold War, enjoyed the sparkle of colors and forms in graphics. Enno Ootsing seems to be enjoying what is depicted, as does Raivo Korstnik. At the same time, through the depiction of enjoyment, Leonhard Lapin expressed a silent protest against the country, whose intemperate propaganda glorified working in factories.