A Quarter of a Hundred Estonian Artists Participate in the Competition for the Ülo Sooster Memorial

SA Sooster Foundation

Press Release 20 February 2026

On the initiative of the Sooster Foundation, 25 artists registered by the deadline for the design competition to create a memorial to Ülo Sooster. The deadline for submitting competition ent-ries is 16 March, and the top three prize-winning proposals -i ncluding the winner - will be announced no later than mid-April.

Ülo Sooster (1924 -1970) was one of the most important innovators and leading figures in Estonian and Eastern European art in the second half of the 20th century. His complex life journey took him far from his native Hiiumaa - first to a prison camp in Karaganda, and later to Moscow.

In cooperation with the Hiiumaa Municipal Government, the memorial is planned for the square in central Kärdla, at Uus Street 4. Nearby stands Sooster’s former school, and the area continues to be home to several educational institutions today. It was here that Sooster’s journey as an artist and thinker began, and motifs rooted in Hiiumaa - fish, juniper, and the egg - remained central throughout his work.

“Hiiumaa was always in his heart - he grew up here, absorbing the magical beauty and energy of these places, and he always dreamed of returning: both while in exile and later, when he became one of the most prominent figures of Soviet underground art.

The choice of location for the monument is even more fitting: the town of Kärdla, next to the school where my father studied. More precisely, there are now several schools here - alongside the music school, there are also general education schools nearby. And this monument - a tribute to Ülo Sooster’s life and work - may reveal something, spark new thoughts, and offer support or inspiration to young people and to those who teach them how to learn,” comments Tenno Pent Sooster, Chair of the Foundation’s Supervisory Board and the artist’s son.

According to art historian Liisa Kaljula, Sooster’s multifaceted creative legacy can also inspire contemporary Estonian artists, as his spirit of exploration was boundless and relentlessly forward-looking. “In Sooster’s drawings, a kind of form generator comes to life, producing endless ideas for new works. Because his life was cut short before he could translate many of these sketches into more permanent materials, the artists participating in the competition now have a chance to symbolically continue - and complete - what remained unfinished.”

Art historian Eha Komissarov likewise believes that Sooster’s legacy could be inspiring, alt-hough creating a memorial that generates positive attention will certainly not be easy. “Firstly, we are dealing with an author who spent the peak of his creative period in Moscow and whom we came to know more thoroughly only after his death. To this day, we do not have a com-plete understanding of Sooster as a person, since those who knew what he thought, desired, and offered to others have long since passed away. As a result, Sooster has become a myth - a resonant myth of human resistance to the oppressive power that constrained him, a myth of Sooster’s fantastic creativity.”

The construction of the memorial is financed by the Sooster Foundation together with collec-tors of the artist’s work from Estonia and abroad. The foundation was established in 2023 and is engaged in mapping and documenting the artist’s creative legacy, researching and present-ing it through exhibitions and publications, and certifying authenticity. The memorial will be unveiled in the centre of Kärdla on 17 October 2027, on the 103rd anniversary of Sooster’s birth.

For more information:

SA Sooster Foundation

info@soosterfoundation.org

soosterfoundation.org