HERE UNDER THE NORTH NAIL
Everyone of us knows the saying ’hit the nail on the head’. It may stand for the level of accuracy with which both, the Finnish writer Väino Linna and the Estonian writer Anton Hansen Tammsaare have depicted their people.
The same master class in art has been acquired by our artists Eduard Wiiralt, Evald Okas, Uno Roosvalt. All three can be differenciated through their especial drawing skills. Not just by hitting resemblance but also by getting deep into the soul of the model.
Uno Roosvalt was guided to the path of artist by Meeta Viks, the art teacher of Pärnu Koidula School and graduate from Pallas (Art School in Tartu). After graduating from the Estonian Art Academy (formerly Estonian Art Institute) Roosvalt followed his father in law, Evald Okas. Okas as a master of drawing can be called Estonian Picasso.
With the present exhibition Uno Roosvalt admits that his greatest teacher has been Eduard Wiiralt. Although the life paths of them did not cross, Wiiralt’s work has guided Roosvalt up to the same philosophical level where historical truth and justice become generalisation of the present day situation of mankind…
And why not – Roosvalt, Okas and Wiiralt are our men under our North Nail, alias the North Star!
Mark Soosaar
Curator of the exhibition
P.S. I hope the films added to the exhibition – The Nail (Heino Pars, 1972) and my Earthly Desires (1977) – help young art lovers understand better on which historical soils Uno Roosvalt’s artworks have been growing and what he has to say to mankind.
