Eesti kunsti oksjonid
Peeter Mudist “Koer haugub musta lindu”
Sügisoksjon 2025
Oil on canvas. 1976.
Signature: P. M. 76. / koer haugub musta lindu
| Measurements | 84 x 104 cm |
|---|---|
| Starting price | 45 000 € |
| Number of bids | 57 |
| Hammer price | 100 000 € |
“There must be something in this light – especially in the spring – that makes everyone take off after it. What happens then… Everyone can make a list of it themselves,” said Peeter Mudist (1942-2013), one of the greatest poets of Estonian art (“Illustreeritud Mudist ehk Tobias”, 2004, p. 206).
In the painting before us, birds, dogs and the spring that is about to emerge take off at the same time. This is the moment when the eyes of the birds circling the cloud line become a window to the world for those waiting below. Are they even on the earth as we know it? As a creator of an inimitably unearthly and dreamlike atmosphere, Mudist’s world is often located in places where we ourselves are not yet aware of its exact location. The artist often posed existential questions and interpreted the relationships between the characters within his own characteristic parable.
Mudist was fond of depicting animals, mainly horses, whose soulful portraits tell of the artist’s close relationship with nature. Not many works depicting dogs are known in his oeuvre; one of them belongs to textile artist Anu Raua, to whom Mudist once gave a painting of a loyal friend giving a paw to its owner, and the other to the Finnish National Gallery (“A Lesson in Good Manners”, 1995). This painting traveled to our northern neighbors decades ago but has now happily returned to its homeland.
Art historian Harry Liivrand writes: “The scene is captured as if in motion – the dynamism is emphasized by the diffuse contours of the characters. At the same time, there is a strange peace in the picture, slightly expectant but happy. The calm color scheme is a coloristic masterpiece, with spots that seem like abstractionism.”
But the main intrigue of the painting lies in the ambiguity of its title and content. Do we really see only one dog and one bird in front of us? Maybe the title is correct and everything else is just an imagination in our heads? Mudist had a wonderful ability to include art in philosophical discussions. Or was it the other way around?
Text: Katre Palm, Harry Liivrand