Ülo Sooster

Ülo Ilmar Sooster (October 17, 1924 in Ühtri, Käina Parish – October 25, 1970 in Moscow)^[1] was an Estonian nonconformist painter.

Ülo Sooster was born the village of Ühtri on the island of Hiiumaa. He was the son of Johannes Sooster and Veera Sooster (née Tatter) and had a sister, Meedi, two years younger. His father was later remarried to Linda Vahtras. He was educated at Tartu Art College where he studied surrealism during the years 1945—1949. In 1949 his studies were cut short when he was arrested and like hundreds of thousands of other Baltic republics citizens, he was captured by the Soviet authorities and sent to Soviet labour camp in Karaganda for ten years hard labor.^[2] In 1956, during Nikita Khrushchev's thaw, he was released and 'rehabilitated' by denouncing Stalinism.^[3] 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: though Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev disapproved and threatened to send the artists to Siberia, the public understood that only membership in the artists' union would be denied and no one would be executed or exiled.

He worked with Ilya Kabakov who wrote a monograph of his work which he kept throughout the Soviet period and which he finally published years later in 1996 after the artist had emigrated to New York.

Personal life

Ülo Sooster married Lidia Serh in 1956. They had a son, Tenno-Pent Sooster, born in 1957, who would go on to become an artist.

Enxhibitions

• 1966 : Poland, XIX Festiwal Sztuk Płastycznych, Sopot – Poznań: Biura wystaw artystycznych.^[4]

References