Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Oil on cardboard. 1974.
Signature: R. Uutmaa. 1974. / R. Uutmaa. “Rand” 1974.a.

“The wave reveals a pattern on the rocks,
the extraordinary beauty of the colors,
what they didn’t even know before, didn’t feel –
a pattern that disappears when it dries, but remains in memory.
That’s what love is.”

Doris Kareva “A wave reveals a pattern on the rocks”

Richard Uutmaa (1905-1977) is known as a neo-realist poetizer of the coastal villages and coastal landscapes of North Estonia, a grand master of the genre. The artist knew the beaches of Virumaa in detail and often depicted specific locations but he also painted more generalized coastal landscapes at times.

This beach motif, in the bright colors typical of the artist’s late period, takes the viewer into the heart of the hottest summer day. In the piece, we notice the artist’s skilled hand and eye in conveying the weather conditions. The midday sunlight radiates back from the beach stones so precisely and measuredly, reflecting powerfully on the almost transparent water and the pine forest bordering the sandy beach.

In this painting, Uutmaa returns to his earlier, impressionistic dotting technique and vividly transfers the movement of the beach plants swaying in the wind onto the canvas with vertical brush strokes. The artist does not hold back on the color, it is especially dense and rich, just as Uutmaa’s eyes saw the summer beach.

Text: Katre Palm