Vive Tolli

• Name — Vive Tolli • Birth Name — Vive Pajusoo • Other Names — Viive Tolli • Born — 28 July 1928 • Birthplace — Tallinn, Estonia • Died — 8 April 2020 • Citizenship — Estonian • Education — Estonian State Art Institute (printmaking, grad. 1953) • Known for — Printmaking (especially etching); book illustration; ex-libris • Awards — * Honoured Artist of the Estonian SSR (1965) • People's Artist of the Estonian SSR (1978) • Kristjan Raud Art Award (1978) • Eduard Wiiralt Art Award (1998) • Order of the White Star, 3rd Class (2001) • Estonian National Culture Foundation lifetime-achievement honour (2008) • Spouse — Lembit Tolli

Tolli was born in Tallinn and completed secondary school there in 1947. She first studied ceramics at the Tallinn State Institute of Applied Arts, before switching to printmaking and graduating in 1953 from the Estonian State Art Institute (ERKI). Her diploma work was an etching series on fishing on Kihnu island, supervised by artist Alo Hoidre.

From 1953 to 1982 Tolli worked primarily as a freelance artist. She later taught at the Estonian State Art Institute, becoming a docent (associate professor) in 1987 and a professor in 1992, and later served as an emeritus professor of the academy. She undertook additional professional training abroad, including in Yugoslavia (1969) and Canada (1987). From 1957 she was a member of the artists’ union, and from 1972 an honorary member of the Finnish Kalevala Association.

Tolli’s practice centred on original printmaking, while also encompassing book illustration, bookplates (ex-libris) and posters. In institutional summaries of her work, etching is repeatedly noted as her preferred medium, with later works also incorporating colour and spatial illusion within intaglio-based approaches. According to the Estonian Academy of Arts, her best-known motifs include depictions of coastal life and nature, views of Tallinn’s Old Town, and thematic cycles (including a series inspired by Estonian folk-calendar feast days), alongside later works with theatrical and metaphorical elements. A 2009 Sirp notice describing an Old Town-themed exhibition characterised her etchings as rich in nuance and associated her work with a classical position in Estonian printmaking, noting extensive exhibition activity in Estonia and abroad.

• Merilehmad (Sea cows), 1963 (etching) • Kivine linn (Stone city), 1965 (Tallinn Old Town theme) • Vaade kirjamehe aknast (View from a writer’s window), 1974 (dedicated to Jaan Kross) • To Inge, 1997 (etching; silk-screen printing)

In 1952 she married sculptor Lembit Tolli; their daughter Tuulikki Tolli became a scenographer.

Vive Tolli was recorded at birth as Vive Pajusoo. Other recorded relations include Timotheus Kuusik and Aleksis Kuusik.

Vive Tolli is recorded as having received Order of the White Star, 3rd Class, Merited Artist of Estonian SSR and People's Artist of the Estonian SSR. Vive Tolli is recorded as printmaker, artist, illustrator and exlibrist.