Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Oil on canvas. 1989-1993.
Signature: Ilmar Kruusamäe 89.-93 / Ilmar Kruusamäe (s. 1957) ROHELINE LUMI (PRIIDU BEIERI PORTREE) 1989-93. Õli lõuend 61.5×45 cm

Ilmar Kruusamäe’s (b. 1957) awards include the most prestigious one in the Estonian art world, the Kristjan Raud Prize, which he received in 2008 for his portrait series “Ilmar’s People”. His ability to use the brush to bring out the character, inner values and spirit of the model, and to convey the most prominent features of their character, are the reasons why we can consider him one of the most important portraitists of our time.

Kruusamäe’s portrait of the poet Priidu Beier is congenial: a hyper-realistic portrait of a poet who loved naturalism and rural poetry. Both the artist and the poet are Tartu residents and contemporaries, which gives the painting additional contextual meaning. Both have also participated in the activities of the legendary circle of friends of the Tartu University Art Cabinet in 1979-1984.

Visually – a brownish-gray color scheme, a dreamily bohemian urban environment – the portrait maintains a dialogue with the modernist painting of the late 1920s and early 1930s. This is one of the few portraits of cultural figures from Kruusamäe in which the depicted person is placed in a specific environment.

Text: Harry Liivrand, Katre Palm