Ülo Ilmar Sooster (October 17, 1924 in

Ühtri Ühtri is a village in Hiiumaa Parish, Hiiu County in northwestern Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by t ...

Käina Parish Käina Parish was a rural municipality of Hiiu County, Estonia on the southeastern part of the island. Settlements There was 1 Populated places in Estonia, small borough () Käina and 34 villages: Aadma, Allika, Hiiu County, Allika, Esiküla, J ...

– October 25, 1970 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

) was an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n nonconformist painter. Ülo Sooster was born the village of Ühtri on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa. He was the son of Johannes Sooster and Veera Sooster (''née'' Tatter) and had a sister, Meedi, two years younger. His father was later remarried to Linda Vahtras. He was the cousin of the ceramist Mall Valk (née Sooster). He was educated at Tartu Art College where he studied

surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

during the years 1945–1949. In 1949, his studies were cut short when he was arrested and, like hundreds of thousands of other Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, he was arrested and deported by the Soviet authorities to

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

. Sooster was sentenced to ten years of hard labour in the Karaganda camp. In 1956, during the Khrushchev Thaw, he was released and 'rehabilitated' by denouncing

Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...

. He returned to Estonia in 1956, but in 1957 he went to Moscow, and began intensive practice as non-conformist artist. In 1962, he exhibited his work '' Eye in the Egg'' at the Moscow Manege exhibition that turned out to become a barrier for the official acceptance of modern art: the exhibitors received an angry reprimand from Soviet leader

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

. Ülo Sooster was one of several artists, to whom Khruschev addressed directly. Sooster's widow narrated: Sooster worked with Ilya Kabakov who wrote a monograph of Sooster's work which Kabakov kept throughout the Soviet period and which Kabakov finally published years later in 1996 after emigrating to New York.

Personal life

Ülo Sooster married Lidia Serh in 1956. Their son, Tenno-Pent Sooster, was born in 1957 and would go on to become an artist.

Exhibitions

* 1966 : Poland, XIX Festiwal Sztuk Plastycznych, Sopot – Poznań: Biura wystaw artystycznych.Второй русский авангард, или Визуальная культура эпохи холодной войны//АртГид, 2013
(Russian).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sooster, Ulo 1924 births 1970 deaths People from Hiiumaa Parish 20th-century Estonian painters 20th-century Estonian male artists Estonian modern painters Soviet painters Soviet nonconformist art Estonian people imprisoned in the Soviet Union Burials at Metsakalmistu Karlag detainees