NEW COLLECTION ⟩ In Jaan Kross’s masterful poetry, you can feel the heartfelt joy of mastering the words

Illustration by Asko Künnap for Jaan Kross’s poetry collection “Be a ship”. Photo: illustration from the book

Ross pointed to Betti Alver and Heiti Talvik as examples of Kross: “Among Estonian poets, Betti Alver’s influence can be sensed most in her lyrics. From the memories and letters one can also read a deep respect for personality and poem by Heiti Talvik. Examples of foreign language poetry can be considered authors whom he mentions in his poetry or whose poetry he translated into Estonian. Of course this choice also depended a little on time and circumstances, but there is no doubt that, for example, Mayakovsky, Brecht, Béranger, Heine and others set an example for him.»

The “Be a ship” collection was designed and illustrated by Asko Künnap. Künnap said that for him, as an incorrigible cartoonist, illustrating Kross’s collection of poems was a clear pleasure. “There is no shortage of images, characters, descriptions and stories to draw from in classical lyric. I had already read most of the lyrics, but now that I was rereading, stark, monochromatic passages, rich in detail and moving in many layers of animation immediately began to resonate. flow through the air. We just had to find the right stop-shots, sketch out the composition and formalize the vision into graphics,” he explained.

The creation of the illustrations occurred in several phases. “The first sketches were made in a notebook while reading, then they were drawn larger and cleaner on notepaper, and finally they were drawn by hand with pencil and sketchbook, painted with a brush and finished on the computer in a final drawing series of graphs”, Künnap described the progress of the work.

The works illustrate the author and the selected collection more fully, but were inspired by six poems by Jaan Kross: «Be a ship», «Coal farmer», «The old bunker», «We are on an island flying», «Of Mayakovsky and these others», «Treatise on rhyming and non-rhyming poetry»».

During the work it became clear to Asko Künnap that the illustrations had to be thought of as an exhibition to be displayed on the wall. Kross’ graphic series is currently on display in Norway, as part of the Künnap graphic exhibition “Sisesaarestik”.

The article first appeared in the Raamat newspaper.

2023-12-18 12:34:22
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