Colours of Light. The Motif of Light in Estonian Interwar Art
Location: 3rd floor, B-wing
Light as a physical phenomenon is defined in simple terms: it is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye and is responsible for the sense of sight. The visible world is the world of light, a small spectrum of electromagnetic waves discernible to the human eye. We notice the unavoidable effect of light in nature, but also tend to ascribe to it powers that transcend the limits of real experiences. Through its figurative meanings, light has formed different layers in man’s mental world. “Light of the World”, “Lux in Tenebris” and “Age of Enlightenment” are phrases familiar to any educated person. This understanding of the meaningfulness of light beyond its physical nature has, for centuries, inspired scholars and artists to examine the issues of the creation, use and preservation of light.
In the 17th century, the English scientist Isaac Newton discovered that when light is refracted in a prism a spectrum is created. The colour of an object is born through its contact with “white” light, which is comprised of different colours. In painting, hues and shades are therefore a way to depict light, to make the nature of light visible in a work of art. Paul Cézanne purportedly claimed, with great insight, that it is not possible to paint the sun in any other way than by replacing it with colours. Thus, as was to be expected, light has become one of the major issues in painting.
The creative endeavours of a conventional painter are focused on light and colour. Before artists started to use (artificial) light as a component of their artwork, they had for centuries depicted light in their paintings. They discovered that illuminated nature, full of reflected light, abounds in visual brilliance and moods. Impressionists, whose views were shared by the Estonian artists Adamson-Eric, Aleksander Vardi, Villem Ormisson, Konstantin Süvalo and Paul Burman, were capable of admirable dedication in studying space drenched in sunlight, of seeing the shimmer of air and shades of colour in it.
For others, light became an important aid in setting a scene. Light helps to bring to the fore the most significant aspects, and forms the hierarchy of objects. Dramatic light can, but does not have to – it all depends on the style of painting – lead to a world of meanings behind visible reality. In particular, the poetic realists Kaarel Liimand, Andrus Johani and others of the Pallas Art School seemed to have the skill of telling a story with the help of light.
We can find masters who dissolved light into its constituent parts and dealt solely with colour. Karl Pärsimägi’s joy of colour has become legendary in the Estonian art of the inter-war period; Endel Kõks and Lepo Mikko, who graduated from Pallas at the end of the 1930s, used pure colour surfaces in their work.
Finally, we should also mention the artists of spirituality. In their metaphysical interpretations, the light outside the human being is entwined with inner light. In Nikolai Kummits’s “candlelight” pictures and, surprisingly, also in the black-and-white prints of the female artists of the 1930s, light is imbued with a spiritual charge.
Curator: Tiina Abel
Exhibition design: Inga Heamägi
Graphic design: Tuuli Aule
