Sirje Runge

Sirje Runge introduces herself as a minimalist. This painting depicts a large red circle on a blue one, and seemingly that is it. Looking down from top to bottom, we begin to distinguish between subtle shades and colour transitions, the way in which specific contours become an almost blurry image surface. The first association is to relate the painting with the sun setting red in the middle of the sky and sea. But there is definitely so much more to this painting. The circle figures in centuries-old Christian art and architecture (rose window), having also carried over into 20th-century functionalist architecture (round window). Sirje Runge, as an artist with diverse interests, has also interacted with architecture. In the current time, Sirje Runge’s painting Suur armastus. Kaunis lagunemine (Great Love. Beautiful Decay) in the Estonian Open Air Museum under the open sky is like a processional work.