A REUNION—RECYCLED ART BY AILI VINT
Aili Vint: Hello! I come from the middle of the last century (born in 1941) It is not just a saying that in your future you meet your past. — I still paint the Sea the old-fashioned way. Miles and miles of it, from the home shore to the horizon.
But I'm doing digital collages right now. These are my old abstract gouache paintings (1962 - 1972) that will now transform into huge pieces, as big as my oil marine paintings! — Everything can be improved.
Since the Golden Sixties, variety has offered a lot of fun — CHEERFUL POP FOREVER! — I can do anything better than “me”.!— This is my passion these days. It is like opening an old bottle of very fine wine.
why I became an artist
— Because I promised! — I remember I was no longer a small child, when I suddenly found myself standing in front of a real, live Sea. The Sea was incredibly vast and open and the bluest of blue. Before the Sun went down I watched, mesmerized, as Sun picked sunset colors and started painting on the Sea. Suddenly the world became unbelievably colorful. Powerful glow of colors was in front of me and behind me, above me and below me; I even felt it under my feet. At that moment I was absolutely sure that no one painter could paint so…— ''When I grow up I will paint a Sun so, so red hot, that when you look at it, you will feel the heat from it and you'll be dripping with sweat!", I boasted to the other children.
Now I am an artist and I will try to show you this glorious moment — my life’s first magical touch of the Sun I will never forget.— Have a good sweat!
SO SO RED HOT II 2018
SO SO RED HOT II 2018 3-D digital collage projected on the whole room as large as the exhibition’s space allows, even on the ceiling and the floor. Compiled of original works by AILI VINT:
RED HOT SUN 1969 This original gouache painting, is 28 x 20 cm, but in this case the tiny gouache painting is as big as the sea, projected on the wall.
SUNSET FLASH 2011 The original: marine painting, oil on canvas is 110 x 191 cm, projected on the whole floor and you can walk on the Sea.
BEAUTY AND LOSS 2018
BEAUTY AND LOSS 2018 3-D digital collage, projected on the whole room as large as the exposure space allows, even on the ceiling. Compiled of original works by AILI VINT:
+ Detail of SUNSET 1969 Gouache painting, 75 x 63 cm Kumu art Museum
+ SUNSET FLASH 2011 Oil on canvas, 110 x 191 cm
UNBEARABLE BEAUTY AND INEXPLICABLE PAIN 2018
Aili Vint: When the Sun leaves, I sense both beauty and loss. I feel insignificance, sorrow, even inexplicable pain.—Come back tomorrow! —The Sun taught me to wait and forgiveness..
SUNSET 1969 Gouache painting, 75 x 63 cm, Kumu art Museum
THE SUN LEAVES 2018
Aili Vint: I will allow you to step into my "vault", where I have been saving the moods and whims of the sea.— my pop-art from 1962- 1972. They are my old abstract gouache paintings and sensual etchings, that will now transform into huge pieces, as big as my oil marine paintings! In my installations they are like souls of the sea that hover above the seascapes, just like ghosts that may appear for a moment and disappear the next.
how to show the huge 3-D digital collages in an exhibition’s space
In the middle of the hall there is a specially built dark chamber. On the outer walls of the chamber the original paintings are hanging. You step into a secretive world where you can experience your very personal mental awareness of things like relaxation and revisiting past memories. Working with your subconscious mind.
THE PRIME FORCE OF THE SEA 2018
PRIME FORCE 2018 digital collage compiled of original works by AILI VINT:
RAGE, 1970, acrylic painting 35 x 34 cm
Detail from SEA UNDER THE DARK SKY, 1975, oil on canvas 92 x 115 cm Kumu Art Musem
Details from CATASTROPHE 1967 gouache painting 75x 63 cm
Detail from TRANSPARENT SEA 2014, oil on canvas 110 x 382 cm
unforgettable sad story
MOURNING
For those of you who do not know, the sinking of the MS Estonia on September 28th 1994 claimed 852 lives and was one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century.
I will never forget the Sea the day after the sinking of the "Estonia". We were at our summer home, electricity was not available, we did not know anything. When we went to the Sea to see the storm, I could not understand what had happened to my Sea. The Sea was frenzied, desperately lost and confused. It was as she was seeking something that can not be found, and thus anguished. She alternately moaned and sighed. The Sea seemed to me to be a never- seen muddy colour, with too sharp and carelessly drawn lines. She was deathly tired, but would not abate. It was not until just before sunset, when an enormous dark wall of clouds came and cast a heavy shadow over the Sea like a blanket, that she calmed a bit. In the evening, at a neighboring dairy farm, where we went to get milk, we understanding that the Sea was writhing in the throes of asking forgiveness.—-She had taken into itself too many lives at once.
I was pained again a year later, riding to Pirita on the bus, when all of a sudden I heard an old woman sigh to herself, "I hate the sea." And I saw how she turned her back to the Sea. But on this day the Sea was so calm and placid. Beautiful and delicate. I got off the bus and asked forgiveness of the Sea.
By Aili Vint, translated Evi Tarkus Vahtra
RAGE, 1970, acrylic painting 35 x 34 cm
+ MOURNING 1970, Gouache painting, 75 x 63 cm
FAREWELL 2018
Aili Vint: When the Sun leaves, I sense both beauty and loss. I feel insignificance, sorrow, even inexplicable pain.—Come back tomorrow! —The Sun taught me to wait and forgiveness..
This time-and-space specific light installation is the memorial for the sinking of the MS Estonia on the Baltic Sea on September 28th 1994, claiming 852 lives, one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century. The memory of the victims will live forever. The Sun, the greatist painter, wants to offers us solace and gives us a gift of peace of mind with a breathtaking beautiful picture before going down the horizon.
Memorial ceremonies (in those countries where the victims were from) could take place in the exhibition halls and should be exhibited only one day each year on September 28th. In the middle of the existing exhibition there will be an light installation set up for that day. The lights on the whole exhibition are switched off and only the light installation will shine. You step into the hall and feel the magical touch of the Sun, a secretive world where you can experience your very personal mental awareness of things like relaxation, revisiting past memories, and working with your subconscious mind.
Estonian Writer Jaan Kruusvall: The world that Aili Vint creates while painting the Sea is fragile and elusive, easily vulnerable. Just like the rest of the world. Like the inner world of a person.
SO QUIET
SHALLOW SEA 1972 oil on canvas,92 x 115 cm Tartu Art Museum
SOUL REALITY
Aili Vint: My concept is to create a perception of a new reality, one that is not actually real and not perceivable to the eye. I think of it as "soul reality". It is intended to be a portrait of the Sea.— How does one paint a portrait of your secret love? — As I start seeing the details that fascinate me in a given Mood of the Sea, they are gone in the next moment.
I feel, therefore, that my three "genres" (marine paintings, guash paintings, digi-collages) should be displayed with equal emphasis It will be able to experience the exhibit like a story, even a novel, that the pictures all together tell. The story of the sea as a living entity.
virtual stories: THE SOUL OF THE SEA
Aili Vint: In these collages, like in novels, I tell stories of the Sea's sensuousness and emphasize its power and reckless moods, its tenderness. -— How similar the soul of the sea and that of a woman is?
When contemplating the sensuousness of nature as expressed in the Sea's psyche, one can see the invisible connection between nature and our senses Therefore, there is a subtle connection between my marine painting, my pop-art, sensual abstracts and depictions of the female form.
ENTICING TENDERNESS
ENTICING TENDERNESS 2017, 3-D digital collage compiled of original works by AILI VINT:
TENDERNESS 1979 Gouache painting 35 x 30 cm, projected on the whole wall of the exhibition space.
+ GIRLS MIRRORED IN THE WATER 2011 oil on canvas, 150 x 120 cm
BLUEST OF BLUE PASSION — SILENCE BEFORE THE STORM 2018
QUIET AGAIN…
Aili Vint THE SEA ENDS HERE (dedicated to Alessandro Baricco), 2007 oil on canvas, 15 0 x 190 cm, artist’s collection
SEA & WOMAN
Hello, Dear Visitor! I am a Painter Aili Vint (née. Sarv) from Estonia, Europe.
Heie Treier, Estonian Art Critic:
Aili Vint has not tied herself to any particular line, although her work is full of quotations of pop and op-art and tiny etchings transform. But she always keeps returning to the Sea. The Sea is in eternal motion and the details, which the artist perceives at a blink, - something mesmerizing, existential and quintessential,—is gone with the next moment. All that remains is an experience of a person who is able to revive and magnify this on a canvas. This is quite a direct approach to the subject of art and the result of which allows contact with the most diverse audience — an unusual phenomenon in contemporary high art at all.
a digital huge collage from series: SEA & ME
Upon reviewing the work I've done throughout my lifetime, I had a new idea of recycling them – of putting them together as very large collages in a totally new awareness. I have combined my tiny abstract gouache paintings and sensual etchings with my seascapes to create huge new works. Now they are as big as my seascapes. In my installations they represent the moods and whims of the sea. My goal is to reveal the soul of the sea that hover above the seascapes.
II vision: 3-D digital collage projected on the whole room as large as the exhibition’s space allows, even on the ceiling and the floor.
PRIMEVAL CALL 2018
Aili Vint: I am the woman, who hopelessly fall in love the Sea.—How does one paint a portrait of your secret love, to capture his mood at a given moment—since it could be gone in the next? — How similar the Soul of the Sea and that of a Woman is! —So unpredictable! The Sea has 1001 faces. Sometimes it is a rebel, then it is affectionate and quiet again. Just like me! — I am the Sea.
PRIMEVAL CALL 2018 This 3-D huge collage compiled of original works in a different styles by Aili Vint from 1962 to 2018:
one story of my marine painting
YOUR PICTURE SAVED MY LIFE, YOU KNOW ...
Aili Vint: One day, when I was painting stony and translucent water, I suddenly received shocking news that a young acquaintance of mine had taken her own life. While painting the picture I remember wondering whether this profound angst I felt at the time would remain trapped in that picture.Years later I received an answer. A complete stranger came up to me, started scolding me for no longer painting the sea.Then she went on, searching for words:You saved my life, you know… She told me that she had wanted to end her life, to give herself to the sea. But a friend took her to the Kadriorg Art Museum to see one of my seascapes. The painting had mesmerized her, calling her back again and again. It offered her unaccountable consolation, until it finally calmed her down. This painting was The Stony Sea.
AILI VINT THE STONY SEA 1975 Oil on canvas, 92 x 115 cm, Kumu Art Museum