Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Watercolor mixed with wine on paper. 1982.
Signature: E Kokamägi 1982

Epp Maria Kokamägi (b. 1959), who rose to prominence in the Estonian art scene in the 1980s, was a young rule-breaker whose eloquent works soon found their way into the collections of various museums. While until now, nude women had been painted mainly by male artists, the situation changed: painting the naked body of a young, sensual woman became Epp-Maria Kokamägi’s trademark, accompanied by the artist’s provocative self-portraiture.

This style of representation marked the beginning of a new trend in art – in graphic art, for example, Reti Saks – which could also be interpreted in retrospect as the beginning of feminist art (a decade earlier, Marju Mutsu’s autoerotic graphic art is still a major exception).

“Leather sofa” also quickly found an owner and decorated the interior of the luxurious Gloria restaurant in Tallinn’s Old Town for decades. The nude of a red-headed woman was a perfect fit for the wine cellar there because the artist used wine instead of red paint on the paper. It is also one of the most frivolous depictions of the party spirit of young bohemians in the art of that era.

Text: Harry Liivrand