Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Linocut on paper. 1964
Signature: Viimane piraat (linool) 6/50 / ITORN 64.

Ilmar Torn considered the mid-1960s to be his most successful artistic period. “I was then in my forties – the best years of a man’s life who has decided to fulfill himself,” he wrote in his monograph (Ilmar Torn “The Story of My Life”, 2018, p. 108). By then, linocut had become his favorite technique and with its powerful style, it suited the islander’s confident attitude and fishing themes particularly well.

Thus was completed “The last pirate” which contains a slight melancholy in its title. It is possible that with the constant onslaught of technical developments, the role of fishermen going to sea alone seemed to him to be diminishing because it was the genuine state and stories of the sailors that inspired him the most. Thus, it’s a symbol for all the lonesome and rugged who are not afraid of the sea or its waves.

Text: Katre Palm