Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Silkscreen on paper. 1998.
Signature: “Võitlus lohega” siiditrükk 22/200 / J. Arrak 98.

In 1998, art historian Harry Liivrand wrote in Vikerkaar: “Jüri Arrak is an academic modernist. He is the rector of his own personal academy but in terms of the figurative fabric of his creation, he is a completely separate phenomenon in Estonian art. He has no students or imitators, he has no school but no one would dare to question his creations.” (“Vikerkaar”, 4-5, 1998. p. 98).

Jüri Arrak’s (1936-2022) clearly recognizable style is bold and straightforward. Even in 1967, when he finished the oil painting “The fight with the dragon” and later “Jüri’s fight with a dragon”, he was able to explain to Soviet officials as a skilled orator that it was he himself who was fighting his own personal demons.

In the silkscreen print completed in 1998, St. Jüri is swallowed by a threatening dragon but as a wise man, he always carries a sword with him and thereby cuts open the belly of the beast. As if as an oracle, Arrak has predicted the fate of the red beast and, as a philosopher-guide, confirmed that there is always a way out.

Text: Katre Palm