Märt Laarman
(1896–1979)
Swan. 1943
Woodcut. Km 27 x 19.8 cm (framed)
price 1 600
Märt Laarman has depicted the swan, the royal bird, as a swan, not as a figure from ancient Greek mythology, as in the HAUS Gallery auction selection of Miljard Kilk’s painting (2015). Märt Laarman was a modernist at heart, cold to narrative and mythology. Modernists were interested in modern science, mathematical precision, and abstract art. The exceptionally fine line engraving conveys the movement of the swan and the water, creating the possibility of an almost abstract representation. Märt Laarman’s heyday of artistic innovation was in the 1920s, in connection with the Group of Estonian Artists and as an advocate and theoretician of geometric art.