Art researcher Rebeka Põldsam pointed out that when she was already in her first year, she realized that the work of Anu Põdra, an artist who has gained international attention in recent years, could be contextualized with Western minimalists and artists from ‘Eastern Europe.
Rebeka Põldsam said that if Anu Põtra is to be associated with music, before she even studied to become an artist, she was involved in dance. “If he was born in 1947 and danced before the age of 20, it can be linked to the music of the early 60s,” she explained and pointed out that when Põder went to the University of Tartu, she loved it . rock– music. “So if you describe it through music, I don’t particularly associate it with classical music.”
“Behind Anu Põdra’s popularity is versatility, if we look at the beginning of his work, it is known that at university he was a very strong portraitist,” he said and added that Põder decided very early that he would not portray Lenins-Stalins. . “In general, she did not represent people very realistically. From her early works we simply see that she can do it well, with precision, beauty and elaboration.”
Põldsam pointed out that Põder had already made several dolls during his university days. “The dolls were a tool for his experiments, and these dolls were often the same size as him,” he said, adding that the dolls had wire bases around which fabric and plaster bodies were constructed.
“In the same way that he decided not to represent Lenin and Stalin, he also decided to be an apolitical artist during the Soviet period, he did not oppose this in his work, he did not do anti-Lenin, but addressed his fringe themes: home , streetcar or streetcar and what feelings it evokes,” explained the art historian and underlined that during the regaining of independence, Põder moved in the opposite direction. “He also said in a video interview that at the beginning of the period of regaining independence, he tried to make bronze sculptures that were very eternal, but then he realized that this eternity did not interest him so much, and his interest is still in the creation of exhibitions.”
“Even though Anu Põder was not a feminist, the feminist vocabulary has always provided tools to interpret her work, otherwise it would be difficult to understand in the macho culture of the 90s,” Põldsam said and stated that it results from the works of the 21st century that Anu Põder is already more harsh and critical towards the world.
In 2017, Rebeka Põldsam curated a major solo exhibition of Anu Põdra in Kumu. “I was in my first year when I realized that Anu Põdra’s work could be contextualized with Western minimalists and also with Eastern European artists,” Põldsam said and added that it was very important for him to open the Põdra’s work in an international context. “At the Kumu exhibition, I included her in both contemporary and past art, and this helped me a lot to understand Anu Põdra’s versatility, her political potential, her ephemerality as a very important quality today, her awareness that materials decay and that everything is transitory, it’s all very modern.”
2024-01-21 13:59:00
art-scholar-rebeka-poldsam-behind-anu-podras-popularity-is-her-versatility-art