Eduard Wiiralt
Eduard Wiiralt (born March 8 . Jul / 20 March 1898 greg. On the farm Kalitino in Volosovo , Russian Empire , † 8. January 1954 in Paris , France ) was an Estonian graphic artist and painter .
Life
Eduard Wiiralt (spelling also Viiralt after the orthography introduced in the 1920s ) was born to Estonian parents in the Petersburg governorate . In 1909 the family moved from Russia to the Estonian district of Järva to the Varangu Manor. From 1915 to 1918 Wiiralt studied at the School of Applied Arts ( Estonian Kunstitööstuskool ) in Tallinn .
In 1918/19 Wiiralt took part as a soldier in the Estonian War of Independence against Soviet Russia . In 1919 he continued his studies at the renowned Pallas Art School in Tartu in southern Estonia with Anton Starkopf . 1922/23 he was a fellow at the Art Academy in Dresden with Professor Selmar Werner . In 1924 he graduated from the Pallas Art School as a graphic artist and sculptor.
In 1924/25 Eduard Wiiralt worked briefly in Tartu as a lecturer in graphics before receiving a grant from the Estonian State Art Foundation for a year-long stay in Paris. From 1925 to 1939 he lived in France. A trip to Morocco in 1938/39 left deep impressions.
From 1939 to 1944 Wirralt lived again in the Estonian capital. In the turmoil of war he reached Paris via Sweden in autumn 1946. He died there in 1954 at the age of 55. Eduard Wiiralt is the only Estonian who is buried in the famous Père Lachaise cemetery.
Artistic work
Eduard Wiiralt presented his first woodcuts and linocuts in 1916 and his first drawings a year later. In his early days he was associated with Art Nouveau . Early sculptures are shown by the artists Konrad Mägi and Kristjan Teder (1922). From 1923 to 1925 Wiiralt illustrated numerous book editions such as the Võrumaa jutud by Juhan Jaik , the fairy tales ( Muinasjutud ) by Jakob Kõrv and a religious textbook by Eduard Tennmann .
In his work Wiiralt was more and more influenced by German Expressionism . He repeatedly thematized the urban life of the time. His often ironic or mocking depictions, which also show early influences of surrealism , quickly became known. In Paris in 1928 Wiiralt illustrated two bibliophile French-language editions of Pushkin ( Gabrielade ) and François Mauriac ( Supplément au traité de la concupiscence de Bossuet ). Wiiralt's illustrations for Marie Under's poetry collection Rõõm ühest ilusast päevast had already appeared in Estonia a year earlier .
From 1933 Wiiralt turned increasingly to realism . Children, women, exotic animals, the gadgets of nature move into the focus of his graphic work. A number of his striking psychological portraits also date from this period. During his trip to Morocco he portrayed Berbers and Arabs .
Wiiralt was a member of the Paris Salon d'Automne from 1927 . From 1929 he organized numerous solo exhibitions throughout Europe, and in 1936 also in his native Estonia.
literature
- Mai Levin: Eduard Wiiralt 1898-1954. Tallinn 1998
Web links
- Pictures by Eduard Wiiralt (Art Museum Tartu)
- Estonia's original surrealist ( The Baltic Times , September 26, 2007)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eesti elulood. Tallinn: Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 607
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wiiralt, Eduard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Viiralt, Eduard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Estonian graphic artist, sculptor and painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 20, 1898 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kalitino Manor near Wolossowo, Russian Empire |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 8, 1954 |
| Place of death | Paris , France |