Opens on August 12 at 15.00
Association of Estonian Printmakers’ exhibition at ARS Project Space August 12 – September 2, 2022.
The exhibition introduces the works of Mare Vint (1942-2020) through multiple decades.
The lithographs created by Mare Vint regard nature as architecture. Forming chaotic nature into abstract stylised shapes, her work draws a connection between nature and human-made architecture. It’s as if her work sanctified the mundane.
Mare Vint’s pictures are ruled by orderly structures. Everybody knows that all living things have been constructed by twenty amino acids. It is a building block with phenomenal creative prowess, allowing life to multiply itself into many diverse species – this is the astonishing work of nature. It is humans’ biggest and most remarkable creative acts that distinguish us from wild nature – we’ve made capsules out of stone, metal, glass, and concrete. Building blocks and modules multiply in factories faster than they do in nature.
In Mare Vint’s favourite technique – stone print or lithography –, the works of nature and humans merge on a new level, adding yet another twist to its creative DNA. Lithographic technique allows you to duplicate a drawing laid upon a limestone plate and then etched tens of times.
In the Association of Estonian Printmakers’ atelier, now known as Graafikakoda, lithography has been printed with the same press for already 75 years. Mare Vint used it as well and stayed true to one single lithography stone, upon which her art was endlessly recreated, only to fade into oblivion while being polished by the print master.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Mare Vint was an important part of the graphic art scene and social circle, which were explosive and high-quality in nature and connected the local graphic artists.
The exhibition hosts an installation of Graafikakoda’s lithography stones which have seen the works of many Estonian graphic artists – and have yet again been polished clean in the anticipation of new images.
The display is the first of two exhibitions by the Association of Estonian Printmakers dedicated to Mare Vint in honour of what would have been her 80th birthday. The second exhibition „The garden of creativity that Mare Vint visits“ will host many of her graphic artist colleagues. It will be held at the Association of Estonian Printmakers’ new gallery – the GÜ Gallery at ARS which will be the new residence of Graafikakoda starting this autumn.
Exhibition organisation: Loit Jõekalda and Lembe Ruben Text: Lembe Ruben Big thanks to: Gristel Mänd, Vappu Thurlow, Elnara Taidre, Uku Kann, Vano Allsalu, Illimar Kangur, Indrek Köster, Estonian Artists’ Association
