Jüri Arrak

Biography

Before art school Jüri Arrak had been a design technician, a taxi driver and an electrical installation foreman. He drove a taxi in Leningrad in 1959–1960, and later made a work called “Taxi” (1966).

He was born in Tallinn into a family of office workers. Sources disagree on the date of birth: 24 October 1936 is the more common one, while some reference works give 26 October. In 1955 he graduated from the Tallinn Mining Technical School; his painting “Lava” (1966) is linked with that time. After army service, in 1958–1959, he worked as a design technician at an enterprise in Leningrad, then as a taxi driver, and in 1960–1961 as a foreman in the Tallinn installation trust Elektromontaaž. In 1961 Arrak entered the Estonian State Art Institute and in 1966 graduated in metalwork. He belonged to the group ANK ’64. While still a student, besides metalwork, he began to paint and make prints. In his early paintings and graphic works the figures are flat (“Arrival at a Strange Station”, 1970; “The Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapiths”, 1972), while in later ones the space becomes three-dimensional. He worked briefly as an artist at the Tallinn Metal Goods Factory, and in 1968–1969 as an artist at the Tallinnfilm studio, where he designed the films “Gladiator” (1969) and “The Wild Captain” (1971). He also acted: he played the painter Ants Laikmaa in the film “Christmas in Vigala” (1980).

From 1969 Arrak was a member of the Artists’ Union of the Estonian SSR. In 1972–1973 he chaired its graphic art section, and in 1982–1987 its painting section. He received the title of People’s Artist of the Estonian SSR in 1988. In 1996 he taught at the University of Tartu as a visiting professor (by some accounts until 1997). From 2003 he was a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and in 2007 he became an honorary member of the Estonian Artists’ Association.

His range of activity was wide: metalwork, rugs, film design, commemorative medals, installations, ex libris bookplates, book illustration. But for the most part he painted pictures and made graphic art. His world tells stories, starting from cultural tradition: Arrak took archetypes, reworked and parodied hallowed interpretations of myths (“The Departure of Europa”, 1975; “Jüri’s Fight with the Dragon”, 1979; “The Bearers”, 1980). From picture to picture a masked figure moves through his work, and its meaning shifts with the context. His works include “Circus” (1977), “City of Towers” (1979), “The Trumpeter” (1980) and “On the Stone Steps” (1981). He also turned to religious subjects and the national epic.

I think the mask is best known outside the exhibition hall. It appears in the animated film “Suur Tõll” (1980; by other accounts the work was done in 1982), for which he was the designer and, according to some reports, the director, and on the cover of the album “Äio” by the folk metal band Metsatöll, which uses his painting “Form with Form” (1999). A children’s book based on the film was published, with 28 large illustrations by him. He also illustrated “Panga-Rehe jutud” (1985), a collection by Hando Runnel, “Punaste õhtute purpur” (1982), and Enn Vetemaa’s “Kalevipoja mälestused” (1984), and designed productions at the Vanemuine and Endla theatres.

His murals and church works include the paintings for the Endla Theatre in Pärnu (1983), the altarpiece of Halliste church (1990), the design of the Holy Cross Chapel at the Estonian Institute of Theology (2000) and the paintings on the organ shutters of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (2001). He had about a hundred solo exhibitions, among them “The Man Looking Back” (2006) and the anniversary show “The Spiritual Path” in Pärnu (2011). His works are held by the Art Museum of Estonia, the Kumu museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Museum in Kraków, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Ludwig Museum.

Prizes came from the late 1970s: the annual painting prize of the Artists’ Union (1977, 1986), the Kristjan Raud Prize (1990), the annual prize of the Estonian Cultural Endowment (1996) and the Konrad Mägi Prize (1997). In 2000 he received the Order of the White Star, Second Class. In the list of one hundred outstanding Estonians of the twentieth century, compiled from a public vote in 1999, he was among the ten most important artists.

Jüri Arrak died in Tallinn on 16 October 2022, shortly before his 86th birthday. He is buried in Metsakalmistu cemetery. In 2023 a fund named for Jüri and Kai Arrak was established at the Estonian National Culture Foundation.