Herald Eelma

Herald Eelma studied at Estonian Academy of Arts. The recorded working language is Estonian. Work by Herald Eelma is recorded in the collections of Art Museum of Estonia. Distinctions recorded are Order of the White Star, 4th Class, People's Artist of the Estonian SSR and Kristjan Raud Prize.

• Name — Herald Eelma • Born — 26 March 1934 • Birthplace — Võhmuta, Järva County, Estonia • Citizenship — Estonian • Training — State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR (ERKI) • Movement — Severe style • Known for — Printmaking and book illustration • Awards — Kristjan Raud Art Award (1981, 1986) Grand Prize, 5th Tallinn Print Triennial (1980) Order of the White Star, 4th Class (1999)

Eelma was born in Võhmuta in Järva County. He graduated from Paide Secondary School in 1953 and then entered the State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR, graduating in 1959 as a printmaker. He joined the Estonian Artists' Association in 1961 and became one of its honorary members in 2004.

After graduating, Eelma taught watercolour at the Estonian State Art Institute from 1960 to 1962 and then worked as a freelance artist until 1992. In 1992 he joined Tallinn University of Arts as a lecturer in drawing, and from 1995 to 2000 he served as a professor and head of the drawing chair at the Estonian Academy of Arts. He also taught at the Varsinais-Suomen Kansanopisto in Paimio, Finland. Eelma began exhibiting soon after graduation as both a printmaker and a book illustrator. His diploma work, illustrations for Truth and Justice, was already seen as an early demonstration of his individual artistic language. Later exhibition and curatorial texts have characterised his work by generalized motifs, a clear and economical line, and a gradual shift from the human figure toward landscape and nature motifs. A Kumu Art Museum exhibition on 1970s Estonian graphics situated his work among the more subjective and surrealist tendencies in the medium. In 1972 Eelma was one of seven artists from Soviet Estonia included in Printmaking Today, a satellite exhibition of the 36th Venice Biennale at Ca' Pesaro. Art-historical scholarship has described that appearance as an unusual and important international presentation of Estonian printmaking during the Soviet period. Book illustration has remained a major part of Eelma's oeuvre. His principal illustrated books include editions of Tammsaare's Truth and Justice (1964–1969), Martti Haavio's Kalevala lood (1981), Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald's Põhja konn (1981), the Estonian-language Kalevala (1985), and Kalevalan kuvat (Oulu, 1987). Works from his Kalevala cycle are held in the collection of the Art Museum of Estonia. Eelma remained active into the 21st century. In 2014 he presented the retrospective exhibition Aeg in Tallinn, and in 2019 a survey exhibition, Avatud värav, opened at Endla Theatre Gallery in Pärnu.