Gustav Mägi 1914 - 1994 Kunstnik ja modell. 1950

Gustav Mägi was a student of “Pallas” and left Estonia during WW II. Because of that reason there was a blank of any information of him and closing of the eye regarding his creation in the local art history for decades. He is one of the most outstanding experimentors among the Estonian artists living abroad, who used actively the experience of the avant-garde art of the 20. century. “Kunstnik ja modell”, which was most probably painted in the second half of the 1950ies, is a room deformation, influenced by Gustav Mägi – style of cubist influences, concealing the conspiracy of colours. The dialogue of an artist and a model is transferred into a powerful room illusion, which has been created by extraordinary means, where the classical model of perspective has been replaced by the logic of broken level surfaces. Mägi does not let any of the discovered trick develop till the end, but uses on the whole painting surface the ethics of disruption, where single fragments, which depict the room under different angles, have been packed together in order to surprise continuously, to twist a curve into the common routines. But let’s also pay attention to the colours and manner, in which Mägi spreads different shades onto the canvas. He slides smoothly from one end of the palette to another, concentrating on the rhythm of the colours and inquiring colour masses, devoid from the pure light-shadow effects. Let’s also compare the differences, which are caused by the differences of the horizontal and vertical brush strikes on the clothes of the artist and the model in order to be convinced: reading of a painting can always be restarted.