The Picturesque Islander - Nezavisimost (Kyiv), Friday, 27 June 1997

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Nezavisimost, 27 June 1997

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Newspaper	Независимость (Nezavisimost, "Independence"), Russian-language newspaper, Kyiv, Ukraine; rubric «Вернисаж» (Vernissage)
Date	Friday, 27 June 1997 (printed "ПЯТНИЦА, 27 июня 1997 года"; the scan file name says July)
Author	Валентина Серикова (Valentina Serikova), host of the club «Артстудия» (Artstudio)
Language	Russian
Subject	Exhibition of non-figurative painting by Vello Väärtnõu at the Slavutych arts centre in Kyiv, with a short biography: born on Saaremaa (the article says 1952), studies at the Tallinn art academy, expulsion from the Artists' Union, arrest after trying to cross the border illegally in the Gulf of Finland, imprisonment for anti-Soviet propaganda, deportation, life and recognition as an artist in Stockholm, collectors of his works.
Photo	Vello Väärtnõu in a black singlet; the columnist Valentina Serikova (small portrait)
Condition of the clipping	The column is cut off after the beginning of the last paragraph; the missing text is marked [...].

Валентина СЕРИКОВА – ведущая клуба «Артстудия». Тел. 441-86-54.

Живописный островитянин

Вернисаж

Сейчас в Киеве в центре искусств "Славутич" проходит выставка нефигуративной живописи известного в Швеции, за ее пределами, а теперь уже и у нас художника Вэлло Вяяртнау.

Вообще-то Вэлло – отчасти наш человек. В смысле принадлежности к территории, окольцевавшей одну шестую часть земли названьем кратким – СССР. Вяяртнау родился в Эстонии в 1952 году на острове Сааремаа. И трудно было не стать вольнодумцем и вольтерьянцем на этом острове, уединившемся вдалеке от "названий кратких". Учился Вэлло в Таллинской художественной академии, но, как сам считает, особо полезных знаний там не получил. Будущие живописцы ездили в села рисовать коров и копать картошку. Но оказалось, что дух художника одними коровами сыт не будет.

Творческая ненасытность и гурманизм Вяяртнау в конце концов и подтолкнули руководство Союза художников к тому, чтобы тот в свою очередь вытолкнул Вэлло из Союза. Причем хорошо вытолкнул, с далеко идущими последствиями. Дело дошло даже до ареста, когда художник попытался нелегально перейти границу в Финском заливе, после заключения за антисоветскую пропаганду. Но ровно через год Вяяртнау через эту же границу и депортировали. Так он оказался в Стокгольме, где, собственно, и состоялся как художник, получил известность. Его работы покупают коллекционеры со всех концов света, а недавно одну картину приобрел принц Сикхов.

Последние десять лет Вяяртнау [...]

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Nezavisimost, 27 June 1997

About this article

This column by Valentina Serikova, host of the "Artstudio" club, appeared in the "Vernissage" rubric of the Kyiv Russian-language newspaper Nezavisimost on Friday, 27 June 1997. It announces the exhibition of non-figurative painting by Vello Väärtnõu at the Slavutych arts centre in Kyiv, the same exhibition reviewed in the Ukrainian daily Den, and gives a lively outline of his life, from the island of Saaremaa to Stockholm. The clipping breaks off at the start of the last paragraph.

Valentina SERIKOVA, host of the "Artstudio" club. Tel. 441-86-54.

The Picturesque Islander

Vernissage

Now in Kyiv, at the "Slavutych" arts centre, there is an exhibition of non-figurative painting by the artist Vello Väärtnõu, well known in Sweden, beyond its borders, and now here too.

Actually Vello is partly one of us. In the sense of belonging to the territory that ringed one sixth of the earth's land with a short name: the USSR. Väärtnõu was born in Estonia in 1952 on the island of Saaremaa. And it was hard not to become a freethinker and a Voltairean on that island, secluded far away from "short names". Vello studied at the Tallinn art academy, but, as he himself thinks, he did not get any especially useful knowledge there. The future painters were taken to the villages to draw cows and dig potatoes. But it turned out that the spirit of an artist cannot be fed on cows alone.

Väärtnõu's creative insatiability and gourmandism in the end pushed the leadership of the Artists' Union to push Vello, in its turn, out of the Union. And it pushed him out well, with far-reaching consequences. Things even came to an arrest, when the artist tried to cross the border illegally in the Gulf of Finland, after imprisonment for anti-Soviet propaganda. But exactly a year later Väärtnõu was deported across that very same border. So he ended up in Stockholm, where, in fact, he came into his own as an artist and gained fame. His works are bought by collectors from all corners of the world, and recently one painting was acquired by a prince of the Sikhs.

For the last ten years Väärtnõu [...]

Notes

• The birth year 1952 is as printed; other sources give 1951 (17 July 1951).
• "One sixth of the earth" and "the short name USSR" echo a well-known line about the Soviet Union from Vladimir Mayakovsky's poetry.
• The column is cut off after its first words; the rest is missing from the clipping.