Girl on a Balcony

This is an exceptional work in Olev Subbi’s creative legacy: it was sold to Japan through Moscow, from where it travelled on to the USA. It finally got back to Estonia in 2020.  

The work dates from Subbi’s peak creative period characterised by extremely labour-intense paintings with shimmering and intersecting stretches of colour, in which different tonalities were combined and the principles of contrast and harmony were applied simultaneously. 

By the mid-1970s, nude painting had become one of the key genres in Olev Subbi’s oeuvre. The woman depicted in many of his nudes became his permanent model at approximately the same time. However, Subbi is not interested in the psychology of a particular person, he is searching for generalisations instead. At the heart of his artistic creed was the search for beauty, and the female body as well as the palette were both harnessed to serve that purpose. 

The old chair depicted in the picture was used by Subbi as a memory object in several paintings. The balcony railing in the background is a motif which in a slightly altered form was repeated four years later in the painting The Art Council of the Lahemaa National Park.

Subbi’s usage of colour is typically layered: instead of clear colours he prefers blended and shimmering shades. Large light-coloured surfaces (e.g. a white sheet) alternate with patches covered in denser brushstrokes. That is why his paintings can be regarded as half-abstract: recognisable motifs have been rendered in abstract colour environments.