Artist Aapo Pukk: Köler made Estonian portrait art great
This March marked 200 years since the birth of Estonian painter Johann Köler. Artist Aapo Pukk honored the anniversary by painting actor Ivo Reinok — dressed as Köler — in the ERR morning show studio.
The choice was no coincidence: Köler is Reinok's distant relative. Pukk admitted that painting in Köler's manner is quite a challenge, but he did not attempt a direct copy.
"I try to chase what Köler might have been thinking, what the journey was, why he did things the way he did. If we take the attitude — why an artist does something — then you can place that in any style or era. Through this, I want to teach what remains constant through time. To rely on those things."
As an artist, Köler was, according to Pukk, a true master. "With a good education, and his career was exceptionally successful: he moved within the tsar's family, and for Estonians it is important that he came from Estonia, was in Estonia, left Estonia, made Estonia and portrait art great, and returned to Estonia. Before him, the masters were not from Estonia — they were Baltic‑German artists — and after him, art became a bit more emotional and individualistic," he explained.
As a characteristic feature of Köler's work, he highlighted its illustrative quality. "He comes with a solid foundation. When you look at his drawings or the preparations for his paintings, people say it's a sketch, but in reality it is made with a very firm line, as if a machine today had drawn it. He simply had such strong, good education and a fantastically good eye," Pukk described.
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Editor: Karmen Rebane, Argo Ideon
Source: ERR interview by Juhan Kilumets and Martha-Beryl Grauberg
