Estonian Art in 1950s

30.03.2008 00:00

Spring 2009

From the second half of the 1940s to the beginning of the 1960s, Estonian art went through some strange times. An intense creative serfdom was taking over, the scriptures of socialist realism were forced upon without much success (Jaan Undusk has said that the alien element was not only the content, but the religiousness of Stalinism), the pursuit of avant-garde was not something you could talk about. Estonia’s art world had split into two: one world was in the ENSV (Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic) and the other one in Stockholm, Toronto, Melbourne, Uppsala and elsewhere.
Eerik Haamer, Eduard Wiiralt, Endel Kõks, Karin Luts, Silvia Leitu and many others had left Estonia. It is interesting to draw parallels between them and the Estonian writers in exile. While the writers kept preserving Estonian nationalism, cherishing the collective memory, portraying and describing the crucial years for Estonia on their agenda; the artists were doing something different. We can find very few examples to the contrary. The artists were depicting mostly Sweden, not Estonia; not memories but creative their creative journey; not things fatal, but of the ordinary. That’s why the gap between the ones who left and the ones who stayed is not that big. Of course, the wish Endel Kõks expressed in one of his letters to Karin Luts, to be able to return a lighter he once borrowed from Elmar Kits in Tartu, was not meant to come true.
In ENSV the artists did what they always have done: art. They were trying to find a happy medium between obligation and personal will, the imposed and the voluntary. Thus, among the works of this period, we can see numerous paintings and graphic prints with titles like “Raikküla Landscape”, “Toompea“, “Sea”, “Karepa Bridge”, “After the Milking”, “Boat Harbour”, “Field Flowers” or “Nunne Gate”- politically innocent and as neutral in their subject-matter as possible, where the main focus in not on the theme but on the painting style. Particularly on the 1950s we see many paintings that accentuate the excellence in craftsmanship: mixing the colours, manipulating the shapes, enjoying the composition.
A good example is Karl Burman’s “Shepherds (1950)”, one of the later works of this top Estonian master of watercolour, from the period when Burman already had given up pursuing his first love – architecture. It is hard to come up with a more nostalgic and at the same time archetypal image than that of a herdboy and an old man with a dog looking after the sheep. The certain gloom in the palette can be contributed either to the general mood – or lack of cheerful colours in the store and in the mind. Or the drawings by Võerahansu “New Life (1951) “, bearing the name of a collective farm. Surely they convey some of the obligatory subject matter, but could easily be set into the 1930s context as well. Even in producing politically correct work, Võerahansu was incorrect, not to mention his ability to draw shamelessly well. Richard Uutmaa’s “Sea (1952)” has the same effect: Everything is all right, everything is OK even for the political party officials, but let’s take a closer look at the setting. Why such an empty plain? Wouldn’t that be the classical symbol of longing? But longing for what? The sea itself? Yes, of course, as a descendent from a sea captains’ family, Uutmaa never had the chance to go to the sea in the Soviet era. So he had no other choice but to paint it, to admire the different shapes of the sea during different times of the day and stages of sunlight. It is unbelievable that in the year 1952 this sunlight is bright; the sun rises, not sets; and the sea is iridescent, not rebellious. But maybe Uutmaa had just got a note from his good friend, Erik Haamer, who had travelled across the sea? For a moment, think what Haamer, who at the time was living in Sweden, could have written. Maybe something along the lines of: “I just finished a view of Mollösund. It is not Ruhnu or Saaremaa, but I can find more colours here than in Estonia. The cliffs are gray with some yellow, blue, red, green plants on them. Further away there are the red roofs of the little houses of little Swedes. And behind all this is the sea. The sea I would paint more of. What about you?”
A similar parallel is drawn by Olev Soans’s “Boat Harbour (1957) “ and Abel Lee’s “Boathouses (1958)” – one was completed in Estonia, the other one in Toronto; but these two will meet somewhere in the middle of the ocean.
It is interesting to look at Nikolai Kormašov’s piece “Pärnu (1953) “. Kormašov is by no means tied to the Estonian painting tradition, he brought along a new mindset. The colours have a different angle, the crowd is bustling, not posing in the middle of the canvas, instead of a thoroughly meaningful motif, the inspiration comes from a simple and ordinary scene. What a contrast to the painting by Viktor Karrus “After the Milking (1956)”! The latter is a genuine example of zealous socialist realism. By the way – it is very rare precisely because of it. Although we might be convinced that Estonian art of the 1950s left behind a whole pile of works devoted to the prevailing regime, then our following auction selection proves otherwise. “After the Milking” is definitely a title with a double-meaning, however unintentional this might be. The heroic dairymaids, unconvincingly beautiful nature and ample cows are enjoying another record-breaking milk-fest, but you can also see it as a piece, painted after the great milking that the Soviet administration conducted on the Estonian artists up to the beginning of the 1950s.
Lepo Mikko “Still Life with a White Table (1956)”, completed the same year as the painting by Karrus, shows the fruitlessness of this same milking. Mikko, for whom the still lifes were like a rooftop, where he experimented with new forms and approaches, proceeds in the midst of gloomy times, to produce a piece that by no means corresponds to the official scriptures of the time. Looking at the shapes, there is no longer an admiration for how beautiful or real they are – the importance lies within the idea behind them. We see the idea of the table, the idea of the knife and the cup, the idea of the fabric – but during that period, what would have been more dangerous than an idea?
It is difficult to talk about the social position of art during that period. Art was considered to be private property and acquiring large collections at that time just wasn’t wise. Even so, the works of art did not remain gathering dust in the authors’ studios. Surely, more purchases were made by the state, but the circle of private collectors had not disappeared. We could point out a few collections belonging to the literati, the pieces to which were acquired “among friends” – certain intellectual groups had appeared; artists, professors, academics, writers etc. would seek each other’s company and held their meetings in small apartments and parlours.
For example, a notable collection was owned by Paul Ariste, whose previous accural from the 1930s was destroyed and ransacked during the war – as Ariste himself writes – not by strangers, but by our own. Now the walls of his home are covered with art again. This sends out two clear messages. First: Estonia lives on. An older generation artist on his wall was not just a “work of an older generation artist”, it symbolized the whole that artist’s whole background. And second: Intellectual values, culture and art are viable and they are appreciated. “We will become great through our spirit”, – this appeal by Jakob Hurt did materialize an a strange way in the small art collections during the drab and tedious Soviet time. We can conclude that by collecting art, a person can often find out information about their own preferences, desires, interests, status etc. – and on certain time periods the same can apply for a whole nation.

In our auction selection this period is represented by the following works:

SILVIA LEITU (1912–1967)
Harjutussaalis. 1950ndad
In the Practice Hall. 1950s

KARL BURMAN (1882–1965)
Lambakarjused. 1950
Shepherds. 1950

JOHANNES VÕERAHANSU (1902–1980)
Uus Elu I (Raikküla maastik). 1951
New Life I (Raikküla Landscape). 1951

JOHANNES VÕERAHANSU (1902–1980)
Uus Elu II (Mootorsaag). 1951
New Life II (Motor Saw). 1951

VLADIMIR BOGATKIN (1922–1971)
Toompea. 1952
Toompea. 1952

EERIK HAAMER (1908–1994)
Mollösundi vaade. 1950ndate algus
View of Mollösund. Beginning of 1950s

RICHARD UUTMAA (1905–1977)
Meri. 1952
Sea. 1952

EDUARD EINMANN (1913–1982)
Karepa sild. 1953
Karepa Bridge. 1953

NIKOLAI KORMAŠOV (s 1929)
Pärnu. 1953
Pärnu. 1953

VIKTOR KARRUS (1913–1991)
Pärast lüpsi. 1956
After the Milking. 1956

LEPO MIKKO (1911–1978)
Natüürmort valge lauaga. 1956
Still Life with a White Table. 1956

OLEV SOANS (1925–1995)
Paadisadam. 1957
Boat Harbour. 1957