Les Croquis – sketches by Raivo Korstnik
Friday, 13 October at 10am at Parisian cafe Les Filles (27 Craven Terrace, Lancaster Gate).
Raivo Korstnik (1932-1992) is an Estonian artist who managed to influence many Estonian artists for generations. In addition to Raivo’s sketches, a portrait of him drawn by Estonian graphic ‘Grand Old Lady’ Evi Tihemets in 1954 will be exhibited.
Korstnik studied at the Estonian National Art Institute during 1951–1957. Only four years later, he became a teacher in the Tallinn Pedagogical Institute, and from 1980 he taught drawing in the same school where he once studied. There he trained and inspired many Estonian artists from the next generation.
During most of his lifetime, Estonia was occupied by Soviet forces, and while social realism was the only official art form, local artists leaned towards modern art styles, even if they had to do it partly underground. So it was no wonder that Raivo, who was associated with the young Estonian Avant Garde movement during the sixties, kept low. Only after Estonia gained its independence did his most valued works become known. He experimented with everything from “Severe Style” to expressionism, cubism and surrealism, never losing his strong sense of spatiality, colour, light and shadow. His portraits catch the characteristics of his models, often leaving something mysterious and elusive in their eyes.
For some time, he helped to organise nude croquis workshops for the Artists Union in Tallinn. The croquis in this exhibition are made in the same workshops. Models show the female body in different shapes and poses, and the artist has captured the moments with a light and quick yet confident hand.
Estonian artist Raoul Kurvitz has said: “I remember that if you wanted to learn painting, it was recommended to go to Raivo Korstnik. They said that it doesn’t matter which school – the main thing is that Raivo teaches. And well, so it was, he taught very well.”