69 years ago, in these gentle early summer days, the prisoner Sooster received his certificate of release. FREE! “Proceeds to his place of residence, Tallinn” — from the Karaganda region with its endless camps.

He took with him the woman he loved, whom he had met in captivity. And stacks of drawings, works created in the camp. Because his creative freedom — unlike his physical one — could not be constrained.

Ülo Sooster would spend the next 14 years of his life mostly in Moscow. He would draw, search, and experiment. He would suffer from the absence of exhibitions, viewers, and money. He would earn a living illustrating books — and in doing so, open a new era in science fiction illustration. But not only that. He would leave behind an astonishing legacy.

In these light summer days, it feels fitting to share two quotes about Ülo Sooster.

Leonhard Lapin, artist: “I believe that the full scope and true heights of the artist’s oeuvre are yet to be discovered.”

Irina Uvarova, art historian: “The blue junipers stiffened in the blue of eternity. Sooster cast them into the initial and final forms of being. They were: cone, cube, sphere. In Versailles, hedges might have been trimmed into such shapes. But Sooster’s were different. Sooster’s junipers grew on an Estonian island — and on that Estonian island, the world was conceived and completed. Sooster’s junipers were the formula of the universe, traced at the boundary of being and non-being.”