Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Oil on cardboard. 1966/70.
Signature: “Tänava vaade Draamateatriga“ 1966/70 49.5 x 72.5 Õli kartong H. Roode 1924

The cityscape of Tallinn painted in the late 1960s is a good example of the work of Henn Roode (1924-1974), a great figure in Estonian modernist art, as it represents a structural analysis of the motif, in broken and rebuilt forms. This was a time when Roode was fascinated by both the main streets of Tallinn, such as “Narva road” (1968, Tartu Art Museum), and the suburbs.

Most of the time, he did not look for exciting framing in them but rather, constructed his own new worlds from the available material. This cityscape also functions as a good lesson in perspective and as a visual description of a summertime empty city in which human figures marked as line drawings bring liveliness to the composition – even there, Roode breaks the form and shows a first-class rendering of a person as just a blob of paint or a composite image of broken lines.

Wassily Kandinsky, the Fauves and the will to break free from the yoke of rigid socialist realism and conventional artistic approach define Roode’s message both in this piece and in the artist’s work as a whole. “Street view with Draamateater” was exhibited at Henn Roode’s solo exhibition at the Draakon Gallery in 1988.

The painting was also featured in a television interview between art historian Jüri Hain and painter Andres Tolts, which was broadcast for the first time in March of the same year (screenshot from the show as the last photo – source: https://arhiiv.err.ee/video/vaata/henn-roode).

Text: Harry Liivrand, Katre Palm