Bronze sculptures are front and center at “Reti Saks: Shapes,” the latest exhibition by acclaimed Estonian artist Reti Saks, which opened Tuesday at Tallinn’s Haus Gallery.
Most of the works featured in the new exhibition were created in recent years, however other works have also been included from various periods in the artist’s career.
Saks said that she first began sculpting with a piece of modeling clay that she kneaded in the palm of her hand.
“As I molded it, the modeling clay grew warm and soft under my fingers — the form in my hands felt as if it had come alive,” she recalled.
“I love that feeling, and I try to recapture it each time I sculpt,” the artist continued. “Perhaps it’s something like what God felt when he shaped man from clay and breathed life into him.”
Reti Saks said she draws in her pictures things that are missing from real life.
“I imagine and construct another world on paper — a world where it feels good to be, to do things. Life in the picture-world is interesting; there, I can arrange everything just the way I want.”
She added that she isn’t alone in that world, noting that viewers are welcome to join her there as well.
“The sculptures I make are like little dolls,” Saks said, adding that they feel good to hold in your hand. “Fire and molten metal have cooled into form, full of weight, resting in your palm. I believe sculptures are homes for souls. When souls are wandering around this plane of existence, they crawl into sculptures to hide. Then the sculptures look at us, in three dimensions.”
That, she added, might just be the purpose for making sculptures.
From Doris to diaspora work
Reti Saks (b. 1960) is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning visual artist working in sculpture, printmaking and book illustration. She studied printmaking at the State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR — now the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) — graduating in 1987, and has worked as a freelance artist since the 1980s.
Self-taught in sculpture, Saks learned bronze-casting techniques at the Peter Jensen Bronze Foundry in Denmark, where she also participated in her first sculpture exhibition after completing her first work in 1996.
She has written and illustrated two children’s books, “Senni and Mustuke” (2002) and “A Staircase to Nowhere” (2020), and illustrated works by several Estonian and diaspora Estonian authors, including Valev Uibopuu’s “Thirst,” as well as poetry by Doris Kareva and Marie Under.
Saks has exhibited widely across Europe, the United States and Asia, and created several commissioned works, including the sculpture “Blossom of Society” for the Ministry of the Interior’s Citizen of the Year award.
She is a member of the Estonian Artists’ Association (EKL) and the Association of Estonian Printmakers (EVÜ).
The exhibition “Reti Saks: Shapes” will remain open at Haus Gallery through Saturday, September 6.
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