Composition (Still Life)

Similarly to many other expatriate Estonian artists Endel Kõks quickly withdrew from previous approaches and arrived at completely new solutions. In exile his art became increasingly more abstract: he became more interested in the dialogue between colours rather than motifs. In Kõks’ works the mental pressure often felt by those living in exile was transformed into a compound of optimistic hues. In this painting objects are still identifiable, particularly the red crabs that set the overall tonality of the painting, but the cubist dismantling and rearranging of forms is already present and some parts of the picture can no longer be associated with real world elements. Abstraction also brings unexpected shades of colour (e.g. violet) to Kõks’ oeuvre, which cannot be found in his earlier works.