Jaak Soans

1943– · Estonian sculptor (born 1943)
Dr. Fr. R. Kreutzwaldi Memoriaalmuuseum; Eesti Ajaloomuuseum; Eesti Kunstiakadeemia muuseum; Eesti Kunstimuuseum; Tartu Kunstimuuseum

trained at Estonian Academy of Arts

He became a renovator of Estonian modernist sculpture in the 1970s. Alongside formal searches based on the interplay of plastic volumes and space, an exceptional pursuit of elegance appeared in his oeuvre. Soans has managed to poeticise bronze as a precious sculptural material, and his bronze sculptures are created with a pure silhouette effect. He broadened the thematic range and communicativeness of Estonian sculpture, bringing existential considerations of the possibilities of man and the humanitaire into his works within a technology-based, alienating world. Soans can be viewed as an intellectual and a teacher, followed both by his students and colleagues. The general public knows him predominantly as a monumentalist. He has created more than 30 monuments and public sculptures, and has immortalised national great figures: for example the monuments to A. H. Tammsaare (1978), Voldemar Panso (1980) and Michel Sittow (1982) in Tallinn, the monuments to Kristjan Jaak Peterson (1983) and Jakob Hurt (1994) in Tartu, and the August Gailit monument in Valga (2009). He has also created abstract large-scale forms in Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands and Argentina. Soans's work of recent years carries a cheerful, intellectual play with the field of meaning of images. The bronze of past decades has been replaced by steel, wood and other less durable materials, as well as ready-mades. In his spatial installations one encounters recognisable recurring images, discussions on the nature of sculpture and its relations with time and space. Jaak Soans is professor emeritus of the Estonian Academy of Arts. He has been awarded the honorary title of Merited Artist of the ESSR (1980) and People's Artist of the ESSR (1986), the Kristjan Raud Art Prize (1974 and 1986), the main prizes of the Riga Sculpture Quadrennial (1980 and 1988), the first prize of the international Argentine Sculpture Biennial "Nuovo Banco del Chaco" (1998), the Order of the White Star, III Class (2001), the National Cultural Award for lifetime achievement (2006) and the Anton Starkopf Scholarship (2013). (machine translation of the holder's Estonian text, unedited)

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Similar artists — same period, media and subjects: Erich Tali · Tamara Ditman · Lembit Palm · Signe Mölder · Tõnu Maarand · Hille Palm

Also trained at Estonian Academy of Arts: Eduard Wiiralt · Evald Okas · Andrus Johani · Johann Naha · Leonhard Lapin

Contemporaries in Eesti Kunstimuuseum: Enn Kärmas · Mihhail Naumovitš Roskin · Irina Kullarand · Ulvi Kuusk · Iia Lääne

By decade: 1960s · 1970s · 1980s · 1990s · 2000s
By medium: Sculpture · Drawing
Where the works are: Art Museum of Estonia · Tartu Art Museum · Dr Fr. R. Kreutzwald Memorial Museum · Estonian History Museum · Estonian Academy of Arts Museum

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Museum records from MuIS and the EKM Digital Collection; gallery stock from the galleries' own catalogues; auction results as Haus Galerii, Vernissage, Allee galerii, Vaal galerii, E-Kunstisalong, Eesti Kunsti Oksjonid and Kunstikoda published them, and the lots Osta Noort Kunsti offered (it publishes no results). Full catalogue · Corrections, removals, questions: info@museaal.ee · Privacy