Eesti kunsti oksjonid

Oil on canvas. 1952.
Signature: -ts 1952

Lembit Nõmmeots (1906-1985) who studied under Ants Laikmaa at the State School of Art and Design and at Pallas, but emigrated to Sweden with the wave of refugees in 1944, became one of the most important modernist painters practicing geometric form formation in the 1950s. His art, slightly influenced by Picasso, was warm and understandable, which is why his works were readily purchased during his lifetime.

In Nõmmeotsa’s still-lifes, one always recognizes specific objects, and it is also obvious that the artist is primarily interested in the decorative values of the painting and the balance of elements in the composition. By placing stronger, unmixed tones in the middle, he softens the overall picture in the back of the work with the technique of dotting and streaking – this is how his good taste in color is also manifested in the work. The forms themselves are also finely tuned in detail. Incidentally, the central motif of fish and birds may refer, as an autobiographical clue, to his times in Hiiumaa where his parents had moved in 1924 and where the artist himself later settled.

Text: Harry Liivrand, Katre Palm