Eesti kunsti oksjonid
Joann Saarniit “Rannaküla”
Sügisoksjon 2024
Oil on canvas. 1960.
Signature: John Saarniit 60.
| Measurements | 22 x 40 cm |
|---|---|
| Starting price | 1 100 € |
Joann Saarniit (1909-1984) was one of 347 Estonians who crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a small boat in 1948. Arriving in the port of Halifax, Canada, he organized the first exhibition of Estonian artists there in the year of his arrival (https://www.digar.ee/viewer/et/nlib-digar:437363/371478/page/4).
Thus, the artist became an early spiritual leader of Estonian artists living abroad in Toronto and has written down his memories in the English-language memoir “Behind the Iron Curtain” with the subtitle: “From West to East and East to West: Memories from a Journey of Suffering”.
Saarniit’s intimately sized “Coastal village” from 1960 is both typical and atypical when considering the artist’s oeuvre. Here, we clearly recognize his vigorous brushwork and the pointed nets applied to the canvas with a spatula but the color scheme is unexpectedly mild.
Saarniit feels an obvious longing for his home landscape and paints a summer view in bright pastel tones in which the blue-black-white tricolor is clearly outlined. The composition of the painting itself is also built on the classic principle of division into three, creating clear horizontal zones of sky, sea and land.
Text: Katre Palm