Marko Mäetamm 1965 Kalju. 1991

Marko Mäetamm created a number of peculiar and humorous portraits of people in rather unceremonious situations, rendered in the clear and pure colors reminiscent of Karl Pärsimäe. A few years after the completion of Kalju, a newspaper noted: “Marko Mäetamm only graduated from the University of Art last summer, yet his art, both in original form and through reproductions in the press, is already known throughout Estonia.”

As a vibrant pop artist, Mäetamm produced works with humorous narratives, bold and simple shapes, placing everyday life into oddly shifted perspectives.

Mäetamm himself explained his approach as follows: “I depict the formal world: phenomena of reality or things that repeat constantly, day after day, and have thus themselves become signs. They are so ordinary that you don’t even notice them. They become valuable when I add my subjective experience and turn them into some sort of concentrate. The idea is to strip the form of absolutely everything superfluous—leaving only the most formal element so that the viewer understands what is there. Nothing more, nothing less; otherwise, it isn’t understood. This is the design of the event. As laconic as possible. So that a person grasps it at first glance. Even someone completely unfamiliar with art issues should understand it. This is mass art.”