Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Woodcut on paper. 1949.
Signature: R. KALJO. 1949 / Rich Kaljo

The theme of sports captivated Richard Kaljo for many decades and the first works in the series, “Basketball” and “Boxing” from 1949, have become separate and significant stages in the artist’s work. Art historian Boris Bernstein has characterized Kaljo as “a cultivator of the situational genre who, through the themes of work, sports and vacation dealt with the object that interested him most – humans. Without abandoning the narrative style of depiction in favor of laconicism like many of his contemporaries but enriching its possibilities of expression” (“Graphics”, History of Estonian Art, vol. 2. Tallinn: Kunst, 1970, p. 138).

Kaljo was a master of figural compositions and mastered the depiction of the human body, which “Boxing” presents perfectly – we see the muscles tensing up at the moment of impact and the momentum of the movement. In addition to the athletes competing in the ring and the referee intently watching the men, he has drawn a whole series of excited spectators, giving each of them their own unique expression.

The work is reproduced in the catalogue section of the exhibition “Richard Kaljo. Stories in Graphics and Letters” held at Kumu in 2014-2015, page 117, page 148.

Text: Katre Palm