Yullo Ilmar Sooster, Estonian, Soviet era, 1924 to 1970, mixed media painting on wood board depicting a Surreal composition, 1966. Signed and dated, lower right. Framed. Provenance: Shapiro Auctions New York, Fine and Decorative Art Auction, December 16, 2022, lot 36. Sooster is one of the largest representatives of unofficial art. Ulo Ilmar Sooster was an Estonian nonconformist painter. He was educated at Tartu Art College where he studied surrealism during the years 1945 to 1949. He returned to Estonia in 1956, but in 1957 he went to Moscow, and began intensive practice as non conformist artist. In 1962, he exhibited his work Eye in the Egg at the Manege exhibition that later was a turning point in the acceptance of modern art: Sooster worked with Ilya Kabakov who wrote a monograph of Sooster's work which Kabakov kept throughout the Soviet period and which Kabakov finally published years later in 1996 after emigrating to New York. One of a kind artwork.

Dimensions: Overall size: Frame 16 x 21 1/4 in. Image 12 3/4 x 18 1/4 in. All measurements are approximate.