Johannes Võerahansu
1902 - 1980
Yellow Roses in a Vase. 1952
Oil, plywood. 46 x 38 cm (framed)
price 13 600
1952 was probably one of the most difficult years in Estonian art history. Stalin was still alive and the repression seemed endless. For artists, this meant continuing to work on compulsory subjects, but also poorer conditions. Painting became less colour-centred at this time, for emotional as well as practical reasons, as pre-war colours had run out and access to good quality paints was limited.
Võerahansu tries to break out of the shackles of poor circumstances. He has chosen a politically neutral floral painting as his subject and tries to create a painterly whole despite the scarce conditions. The painting is not overly colourful or fake, but a sincere document of the artist’s apparently slightly melancholic state of mind. Yellow and blue blossoms burst open on a brown background, there is an expectation of change and a sense of vitality, but without the jarring and intrusive effect. Võerahansu’s painting is a rare glimpse into the mindset of people living in the depression of the early 1950s, who never stopped hoping and yearning.