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Mall Paris is the laureate of Konrad Mägi Award 2020
19.01.2021
The Konrad Mägi medal and art award consisting of 3200 euros has been awarded by the Estonian Artists Association, Estonian Painters Association and the Visual and Applied Art Fund committee of the Estonian Cultural Endowment since 1979.
The members of the award jury – Tiiu Rebane and Jaan Elken from the Estonian Painters' Association, Anne Parmasto and Mari Vallikivi from the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Vano Allsalu and Elin Kard from the Estonian Artists' Association – decided to give Konrad Mägi Art Award 2020 to painter Mall Paris for dedicated practicing of her unique conceptual style of painting.
The award ceremony takes place in Tallinn Art Hall at 8pm on November 3rd, 2020.
Mall Paris (b. 1954) was born in Tallinn and raised in the family of artists. She has graduated from the department of painting at the Estonian State Art Institute in 1984 and has participated in exhibitions since 1981. Paris is a member of the Estonian Artists' Association, Estonian Painters' Association and Estonian Watercolorists' Union. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions both in Estonia and abroad as well as held several personal exhibitions. Mall Paris is one of the purest practitioners of abstract and minimalistic painting in Estonia. Her paintings approach geometric discourse but most of the times there is also something else included, something undefinable. Paris' paintings have traces of minimalism and poetic Arte Povera. In her emphatic way, the arist poeticizes lifestyle and art that have grown out of the most scarce means, and yet, her paintings always involve the best characteristics of professional art of painting.
At the recently held co-exhibition Sisters (with Edith Karlson, Tallinn Art Hall gallery, December 20, 2019–February 9, 2020), Mall Paris displayed her newest paintings and watercolour pieces. Tamara Luuk, curator of the exhibition, has said that Mall Paris with her silent yet consistent presence and her serial method of composing minimalistic paintings is a uniquely delicate and equanimous artist who feels the need to do what she does. Recurrence of an image in Mall Paris' work may be first annoying, however, it is fradually becoming a pulsating whole with plenty of nuances that would caress the viewer's eye. Because the careful movement of a hand still leaves a trace, thus revealing various lights and textures on canvas, gleaming through the painting technique where glazing has been used. While using the laconically geometric method, Mall Paris has took this painting style and turned it unbreakable both for herself and the viewers since mid–1990s.
Estonian art institutions proposed the following candidates for this year's award: Mauri Gross for his artwork Sub-Consciousness exhibited at the Annual Exhibition of Estonian Painters' Association in 2020 held in Pärnu Museum of New Art and for his artwork Camp Flowers exhibited at the 20th Annual Exhibition of Estonian Artists' Association held in Tallinn Art Hall; Mirjam Hinn for her personal exhibition High Voltage held in the Project Space of Tartu Art Museum and for co-exhibition Creation with Eero Ijavoinen and Enn Põldroos held in Valga Museum; Mihkel Ilus for his co-exhibition Endless Story with Paul Kuimet held in Tallinn Art Hall and for his personal exhibition Negotiations / Facade Works held in Tartu Art House; Ando Keskküla and Anders Härm's retrospective exhibition Technodelia and Reality at Kumu Art Museum; Kaarel Kurismaa and Mari Kurismaa – for Kaarel Kurismaa's participation in group exhibition Let Me Dream Once More held in Narva Museum Art Gallery and Mari Kurismaa for her artwork Geometric Landscape in the permanent collection Corporeal and Metaphysical of Kumu Art Museum; Mara Ljutjuk for her personal exhibition Memory held in Kastellaan Gallery; Juss Piho for his personal exhibition Punctum held in Draakon gallery and personal exhibition New Figures held in Pärnu City Gallery; Jane Remm for her personal exhibition Views on a Landscape held in Tallinn City Gallery; Tiina Tammetalu for her personal exhibition Personal Paradise held in Haus Gallery; Helle Vahersalu for her life's work as an artist and a teacher as well as for her personal exhibition Snow, Rust, Colour held in the great hall of Tartu Art House.
The Konrad Mägi medal and award has been awarded by the Estonian Artists Association, Estonian Painters Association and Cultural Endowment of Estonia since 1979 and this it to honour Konrad Mägi's birth anniversary on November 1st as well as the artist's importance in the development of Estonian art of painting. The award is given for a painting, a series of paintings or an art project that has considerably enriched Estonian art of painting and been publicly exhibited during the period of November 1st of the previous year and November 1st of the current year. Artists are eligible regardless of connections with a specific art movement, style or technical process, or whether their work is traditional or innovative in character. The selected artist is given the award only once. The medal that accompanies the award is the artwork of metal artist Enn Johannes. Since 1979, numerous distinguished Estonian painters have been given the award, including: Olga Terri, Tõnis Saadoja, Lembit Sarapuu, Alice Kask, Kaido Ole, Enn Põldroos, Sirja-Liisa Eelma, Toomas Vint, Merike Estna, Peeter Mudist, Jaan Toomik, Lembit Saarts, Tiit Pääsuke, Valeri Vinogradov, Aili Vint, Olev Subbi, Sirje Runge, Jüri Arrak, Peeter Allik, Lola Liivat, Andres Tolts, Kristi Kongi, Uno Roosvalt, Laurentsius & A.D., Erki Kasemets, August Künnapu and many others.
