Silvia Jõgever

Silvia Jõgever was a painter and art teacher who lived and worked in Tartu. She studied in several art institutions, and graduated from the State Art Institute of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (now the Estonian Academy of Arts), which had a section in Tartu until 1955. She suffered from lung disease and could not work as an artist for a long time after graduating, but she was highly respected as a teacher. Jõgever has stated, “One can only teach what one has experienced and practiced.” [1] Her students have described her as an inspiring and passionate person with limitless fantasy. [2]

Jõgever´s earliest works, portraits of herself and her artist friends—Autoportee [Self-Portrait] (Art Museum of Estonia), Lembit Saartsi portree [Portrait of the Artist Lembit Saarts] (Tartu Art Museum), and Valve Janovi portree [Portrait of the Artist Valve Janov] (Tartu Art Museum)—date from the 1950s. In the second half of the 1950s, she started to experiment with abstraction, collage, and assemblage in works such as Abstraktsioon [Abstraction] (1958, Tartu Art Museum). Jõgever stated in an interview that her abstraction grew out of free-form sketches in her student notebooks, which she developed further by adding color. [3] Like many artists at the time, Jõgever worked in several techniques (painting, drawing, and collage, which was especially practiced among Tartu artists in the 1960s) and styles concurrently. Jõgever´s experiments are often playful compositions with a surrealistic atmosphere, as in Figuurid [Figures] (1965, ZAM, D21455), Kompositsioon munaga [Composition with an Egg] (1965, Tartu Art Museum), Karikas [Chalice] (1964, ZAM, D21456), and Traktor [A Tractor] (1964, Art Museum of Estonia). Some represent women distinctively, such as Jalad II [Legs II] (1964, Art Museum of Estonia), or humorously, such as Sõbratarid [Girlfriends] (1961, Tartu Art Museum).

The year 1960 was a significant one for the artist. At that time she organized Estonia’s first nonofficial art exhibition, at a secondary school in Tartu where she was a teacher. As the art historian Eda Sepp has described, this exhibition, which included works by Ülo Sooster, Valve Janov, Kaja Kärner, Edgar Viies, Lembit Saarts, Lüüdia Vallimäe-Mark, and Valdur Ohakas from Tallinn, as well as one of Jõgever’s own pieces, caused a major scandal in official art circles in Estonia. [3] Jõgever's statement that accompanied the exhibition expressed the artistic aims of the group: reliance on color and light to express form and an emphasis on individuality and subjectivity. Many of the paintings used formal distortion and expressive color. The statement, handwritten in blue ink with a black title on white paper, displayed the colors of the prewar Estonian flag. The exhibition was followed by interrogations and accusations by tribunals at the local Union of Artists and the Communist Party headquarters. Although the works were not very different from others included in earlier exhibitions of young artists in Tallinn, the exhibition attracted scrutiny because of its unofficial nature and the lack of permission from the Union of Artists.  Jõgever joined the Union of Artists only in 1977 and became very critical of the Soviet system. An eloquent example of her figurative and narrative painting that expresses her political discontent is Puuriloomad [Caged Animals (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia)] (1965, ZAM D16915), in which caged animals symbolize the four countries whose fate was decided in the Hitler-Stalin pact in 1939.

Generally, the artist’s later work took two main directions. Her paintings are either harmonious, idealistic, and lyrical dream images—such as Südasuvi [Midsummer] and Unenägu [A Dream] (both 1969, Tartu Art Museum)—or strange, gloomy, and absurd depictions of the internal tensions of society and individuals, often with an existential and/or ironic undertone—such as Käpulikäijad [Crawlers] (1976), Hüpiknukk [Puppet] (1978), and Monument. Sügisene ringmäng [Monument. Autumnal Circle Game] (1966), all Tartu Art Museum. In the last example, dancers circle a pedestal that is topped not by a bust of Lenin or a party leader but, instead, by a straw scarecrow.

The assemblage Heinalised. Teoorjad tulevad heinatöölt koju [Hay Makers. Serfs Coming Home from Working in a Field] (1960, Art Museum of Estonia) is an intriguing example of the artist’s somewhat absurdist and gloomy compositions that could also be regarded as a comment on social conditions for women in the Soviet Union. Here, faceless women take part in a procession as if they are enslaved. The work is also eloquent for its depiction of serfdom, an ideological and somewhat risky choice of subject matter for the period. Jõgever also staged other disturbing scenes that were rarely depicted in the art of that time, if ever, as seen in Uputaja [Drowner] (1961, Tartu Art Museum).

Jõgever herself has commented that behind each of her works is a concrete vision or dream. She has stated that she feels a connection between colors and sounds, as is evident in, for example, Musitseerimas [Making Music] (1985–88) and Kitsed udus [Goats in the Fog] (1967), both Tartu Art Museum. [4] Her figural compositions are often very theatrical, as exemplified by Näitelaval [On Stage] (1970, Tartu Art Museum). During the Soviet period, Jõgever had a special permit to attend the rehearsals of the plays at Theatre Vanemuine in Tartu. She had wanted to become a ballerina herself when she was young, and memories of seeing a traveling marionette show from the Czech Republic at the age of nine nearly inspired her to study to become a theater decorator instead of a painter and teacher.

Nudes make up an important part of her paintings, including Akt tumedal taustal [A Nude on a Dark Background] (1986, private collection), and drawings, such as Lamav akt [A Reclining Nude] (1986, private collection). She also painted landscapes such as Jõevaade II [A Look at the River II] (1978, Tartu Art Museum) and Haaslava maastik [Haaslava Landscape] (1960, Art Museum of Estonia), and suburban views of Tartu such as Karlova (1980, private collection) that were not based on visions or dreams, but usually painted on the spot. Jõgever has said that Estonians are people of nature and hence should value and protect the surrounding environment, because without nature, life is impossible. [5] Her landscape studies were born out of direct contact with nature, but rather than concentrating on a specific motif, Jõgever focused more on impression and emotion by using different patches of color and form in her compositions. In her later years, she dreamed of compiling an exhibition setting abstract works in harmonious dialogue with landscape paintings. For her, the two genres were very similar—both forming the image from adjacent blocks of color.

Jõgever´s very original and distinctive vision, her uncompromising dedication to color and form in painting, and her opposition to socialist realism and Soviet art in general had lasting impact on a later generation of artists.

Eda Tuulberg

Notes

1. Kai Libe, “Maalikunstnik Silvia Jõgever,” research paper, Tallinna Pedagoogikaülikool, Tallinn, 1994, 9.

2. Author´s conversation with Reet Mark, October 5, 2018.

3. Eda Sepp,”“Estonian Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Occupation in 1944 to Perestroika,” in Art of the Baltics: The Struggle for Freedom of Artistic Expression under the Soviets, 1945–1991, ed. Alla Rosenfeld (Rutgers University Press, 2002), 52.

4. Libe, “Maalikunstnik,” 21.

5. Libe, “Maalikunstnik,” 23.