Written by Voldemar Erm in 1962
Back in Estonia, A. Starkopf was engaged in drawing in his birthplace, in which his overflowing creativity and fantasy emerged as if from behind a dam. Since 1919 he presented his expressionist drawings at several art exhibitions. 1919 Starkopf worked in the art department of the Ministry of Education, helping to organize an overview exhibition of Estonian art. In the autumn of the same year, he went to Tartu, where in cooperation with A. Tassa, K. Mägi and A. Vabbe, the art school "Pallas" was founded to enable young Estonians to acquire art education in their homeland. Starkopf's role was important in the development of the initially free studio-type educational institution into a higher school of visual arts and in securing the latter's economic base. At the "Pallas" art school, Starkopf worked as head of the sculpture studio from 1921 to 1923 and as director from 1929 to 1940. 1934 he was awarded the title of professor. As a pedagogue, Starkopf instilled in his students the habits of hard work and independent work, took care of developing their individual abilities, taught them early on to carve their works in wood, granite or marble and to take into account the character of the future material already when modeling. The result of his pedagogical work was that most Estonian sculptors successfully used a wide variety of materials, especially granite. Under Starkopf's guidance, a whole series of outstanding sculptors such as F. Sannamees, H. Halliste, J. Hirv, A. Vomm, M. Saks, E. Jõesaar, E. Roos, R. Timotheus, L. Laas and others emerged from the "Pallas" sculpture studio.
1919 A. Starkopf also begins fruitful creative work in the field of sculpture. The 1920s were a period of intense search and development in his work, during which the influences received during his studies in continuous work crystallized into Starkopf's personal approach. He begins with heads and busts executed in an expressionist spirit and in several materials, such as (all 1919-1920) "Fisherman's Head" (wood), "Soldier's Head" (terracotta), "Standing Female Figure" (concrete). Simultaneously with them and subsequently, a series of characteristic realistic portraits are produced, the most outstanding of which are the portraits of actor J. Vaher (granite, 1923) and producer P. Sepa (bronze, 1925).
Soon, however, figure sculpture takes a dominant place in Starkopf's work, in which he rises to a leading position among the sculptors of Estonia's first period of independence. His single figures, reliefs and group compositions cover a wide range of subjects and are created in a variety of materials. He has created works in intimate chamber format as well as decorative garden sculptures, tombstones and monuments.
Starkopf begins by modeling female figures with a realistic approach to form, such as "Female figure" (bronze, 1923), "Woman with raised hands" (plaster, 1924), followed by some lifelike male figures, such as "Blacksmith" (plaster, 1925), "Man with a hammer" (bronze , 1925) et al. All of them are carefully created works with a sense of form that follows nature, but in which the artist's face is not yet revealed.
1925 Starkopf creates a series of bronze figures - "Autumn", "Dance", Siamese dancer" and others. – which surprise with their gothic slenderness, dynamism and the originality of their stylizing form. The artist's starting point is no longer the direct imitation of nature, but the creative reworking of natural forms in order to bring out the experiential content more clearly. In the same year, deeply soulful compositions on the theme of mother's love are completed in wood: "Madonna" and "Pieta", in which, in contrast to the previous works, the static composition, general treatment of form and rough surface structure from the cut marks, so characteristic of Starkopf's later work, are first revealed. In these works, you can transiently feel the new emergence of expressionist form speech.
In the following phase until around 1930, however, his work is again characterized by the use of a form with a clear and concise silhouette, open composition and natural smooth surface treatment in several works made in wood, such as "Flora" (1926), "Virginia" (1927), "Amazement" (1927) and others. In addition to single figures, Starkopf also creates the multi-figure compositions, in which he mostly deals with love and passion with masculine directness, e.g. "Two" (tree, 1926) with a strict pyramidal structure, "Devotion" (wood, 1927) with a flowing silhouette effect and "Happiness" (wood mass, 1929) with an openwork composition. The highly stylized triple group "Kelp" (wood, 1927) has a purely decorative character. In 1928, a triple group of a fountain was made of wood, the central figure of which is a mother carrying a fiber on her shoulder with two children, the side figures are a playing child on a turtle and a sea lion. The concrete fountain group "Children with a seal" in the garden of the Railway Technician in Tartu has a humorous touch. In addition to figure sculpture, Starkopf also creates some expressive portraits, such as A. Tassa (1928), Adamson-Eric (1931) and others.
Since 1931, granite takes the first place as a material in Starkopf's work, alternating with wood, marble and sandstone. However, due to its properties, granite requires great simplicity and ability to generalize in processing. When using granite, Starkopf's completely peculiar masculine style is now taking shape, characterized by the architectural closure and monolithicity of the composition, the large form rejecting small details, the expressive articulation and rhythm of the form masses, the highlighting of the character and beauty of the material with the corresponding form and surface treatment. He does not like to polish his granite sculptures to a shiny finish, but leaves their surface rough and emphasizes the natural beauty of the stone with the contrasting gritty base and even rougher structure of the hairline. If in the previous period there was still a certain eclecticism in the selection of artistic means of expression, from now on the content and form of Starkopf's works can be felt in the hand and spirit of a mature master who shapes the stubborn material to his own liking. Starkopf's approach to form with great generalization ability continues the traditions that J. Koort has established in Estonian sculpture and which, through the works of V. Melliku, H. Halliste, M. Saksa and several other sculptors, have left a unique national stamp on Estonian relief art, but also brought it closer to the work of several Nordic masters (i.e. V. Aaltonen) for modern applications.
The boundary stone between the old and new stages of development is the monumental granite bust "Drowning Man" (1931), which, in the form of a drowning young man, expressively conveys his tragic struggle between life and death. 1932-1933 small-scale figures and groups with a compact generalized approach to form, such as "Lovers", "Mourning Woman" and "Mother" date from The last of them, reproduced in the almanac "Pallas 1918-1933", also aroused the serious interest of Moscow sculptors, after which he was asked to send photos for a wider presentation of his work. 1935 Starkopf took part in the Estonian contemporary art exhibition organized in Moscow with four works, where both his and all Estonian sculptural creations attracted great attention. Also in 1934 in the completed series of wooden sculptures ("Mõtiskleja", "Sitting Woman" etc.) we see the decisive victory of a new approach.
Subsequently, the sculptor again finishes his works almost exclusively in granite and marble. Among them, two reliefs executed with an expressive composition and a good sense of rhythm (1935) should be highlighted, as well as expressive granite female figures "Evening" (1936-1937), "Kneeling" (1938), "Sitting Woman" (1938), whose magnificent sculptural worm is in good harmony.
Starkopf granite figures fit particularly well into nature and therefore attract the attention of art-loving garden owners. An excellent example of the synthesis of decorative sculpture and garden art in the 1930s is R. Tamme's beauty garden in Jõgeva, where several of Starkopf's outstanding works are concentrated, for example "Salome" (1935), "Sunbather" (1936), "The Zither Player" (1938), "à la Japanese woman" (1938) and others. The fountain group "Vase" (1936) is erected in the garden of A. Annisti in Tartu, the 3rd fountain figure "Child with fish" (1935) in the garden of Riga mnt, etc.
In the 1930s, Starkopf created a whole series of tombstones with a simple general architectural design, decorated with figures or reliefs, in several Estonian cemeteries. The most outstanding of them are the Mikuri Tamme family tombstone in Hager (1931), Ü. Reial's tombstone in Tartu (1933), A. Jõks' tombstone in Nõo (1934, with a monumental granite Pieta group). K.A. Rütmann's tombstone on Rahumäe in Tallinn (1938) and others. Both with his numerous decorative garden-park sculptures and tombstones, Starkopf made a valuable contribution to the development of garden art and cemetery culture of this period.
With his rich creations, Starkopf took part not only in domestic art exhibitions but also in all Estonian art exhibitions held abroad during that period, attracting serious attention in many places. Several trips to the art centers of Western Europe, Finland and Scandinavian countries have brought variety and stimulation to his busy days.
After the establishment of Soviet power in 1940. was appointed the director of the Starkopf Jaan Koorti National School of Applied Arts in Tallinn. His 1940s in the granite figures "Mother with child" and "Rhythm" presented at the autumn exhibition, the hitherto monumental static approach continues. Newly modeled figures and reliefs remain in plaster due to lack of time.
Interest in animal sculpture also arises: "Sitting Bear" is carved from granite (1940, final finish 1958). During the German occupation in 1942-1944, Starkopf worked as a sculpture teacher at the Higher Visual Arts Courses in Tartu. As a result of the war, many of his outstanding works were destroyed, but this did not break the artist's creative zeal. Among the new works of this time, we can mention several figures and reliefs made in wood, such as the elegiac relief "The Climber" (1941), the despair-filled "Anguish" (1942), the rustic "Piper" (1943) with a humorous undertone, the sharp rhythmic "Dancer" (1943). ) et al.
In the post-war period, A. Starkopf worked in 1944 from the fall as the head of the department of study and sculpture at the Tartu State Art Institute and from 1945 to 1948 as director. In cooperation with the collective, he applied all his energy and long-time pedagogic experience to rebuild the higher art school, which was completely destroyed during the Tartu battles. For this activity, he was awarded the 1945 Honorary title of meritorious artist of the Estonian SSR and was awarded the medal "For Bravery in the Great Patriotic War" and in 1946. "Work with the Red Flag" order. 1947 the title of professor in sculpture was confirmed. From 1948 until his dismissal in 1950, Starkopf served as dean of the Faculty of Sculpture and Graphics at the Art Institute. A number of talented young sculptors such as E. Kirs, O. Männi, O. Ehelaid, L. Iisrael and others have emerged from the Tartu State Art Institute under his guidance.
Having lost the ground under his feet in his homeland, Starkopf worked in 1950-1954. In Moscow, sculptor S.D. As a stonemason in Merkurov's studio, helping to carry out mainly portrait commissions. 1954 after that, A. Starkopf worked again in Tartu as a prolific artist.
Starkopf's work in the years 1944 - 1950 is characterized by a more concrete, more detailed treatment of motifs than before, based on the requirements of socialist realism, and an attempt to deepen the realistic approach to form, especially in portraiture. This tendency is less noticeable in his animal sculpture, which he continues to cultivate from now on. The monumental "Bear" (1943-1944) executed in a generalized form similar to granite adorns the green area of Harju street in Tallinn, the small expressive marble "Ice Bear" (1944) in R. Tamme's garden in Jõgeval. A small "Black Bear" (tree, 1945) balancing on a ball with a humorous tone is acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, a snoozing "White Bear" (tree, 1945) by the Tallinn State Art Museum. Starkopf returns to the bear motif several times.
The two-figure relief "Musicians" (1942-1945) carved into wood in a personal, archaizing style, as well as two deeply emotional "Madonnas" (relief and bust, 1945) are deeply felt. These works are among the best of Starkopf's work. The woodblock print "Virgats" (1947) captures the flying speed of the Soviet cavalryman. Due to excessive detailing, the sports-themed composition "Wrestlers" (tree, 1948) has been less successful. In those years, Starkopf works extensively in the field of portrait sculpture, modeling dozens of busts and heads of people from various professions. Due to the lack of material and work opportunities, most of them are plaster, only a few portraits are carved in granite, such as N. Kummits (1945) and B. Võrse (1947). The personality cult's time-restricted understanding of socialist realism has also left its stamp on Starkopf's portrait work of that time. Requesting to convey portrait likeness down to the smallest details, many of his portraits also lose their vital character due to the lack of generalization ability and remain dry. The creative attitude can still be felt in, for example, M. Pukits (1946), the Korean Li Kai (1948), the art student Belov (1950) and others. in portraits. But the studio work done in those years bears fruit in Starkopf's later portrait work.
The years spent in Moscow from 1950 to 1954 form a barren gap in Starkopf's work. Mentionable are only Portrait reliefs of A.S. Pushkin and M. Gorky for reproduction in mass circulation. Returning to his hometown, Starkopf initially devotes himself to portraying Estonian literary classics. The first to be completed in 1955. J. Liiv and A. Kitzberg's small portrait plaques in electroplating. Several years of careful work on solving the portrait of A. Kitzberg followed, until 1959. over several intermediate stages, a life-size granite bust of the writer will be completed for his tombstone in Tartu. He works just as diligently with the portraits of the poet K.J. Peterson's portraits, the final result of which is an expressive, youthfully exuberant portrait bust (plaster, 1957) and a standing half-figure (wood, 1957). A monumental portrait in granite (1959) of the childhood friend and encourager, the writer A. Tassa, follows. However, the peak of Starkopf's portrait creation is marked by the psychologically expressive, formal portraits of painters K. Mägi (1962) and N. Triik (1963). Teoks has J. Liiv's large-scale portrait relief from 1955. based on the completed plaque.
However, Starkopf's main field remains figure sculpture, which he cultivated with unceasing zeal in the 1960s. He restores his works destroyed in the whirlwind of war, takes the material to works previously completed in plaster and constantly models new ones. In terms of material, his work is still very versatile, reflecting the wide sphere of expression of the human psyche - from the bright joy of dance and the happiness of love to the deep resignation of old age and the tragic pathos of death. Beside the decorative garden-park sculptures, more and more works that express a philosophical reflection on the nature and destiny of a person permeate his work. The formal treatment of his works is strictly grand, masterful and stylish. As materials, he now mainly uses granite, marble and concrete as a technological intermediate; numerous small designs are captured in electroplating, pewter, and in recent years abundantly also in ceramics. A series of decorative fountain figures with a varied composition are made in granite, such as the self-enclosed compact "Abandoned" (1957 and 1958), the beautiful upright silhouette effect "Stone Flower" (1958), the quietly sleepy "Water Rose" (1960). Among the numerous garden sculptures, the vivid "Coquette" (1959), the dignified and calm "Eva" (1960), the active turning movement "Guard" (1960) and several others make a good impression against the background of nature. Among the animalistic granite sculptures, the most outstanding are "Circus Bear" (1959) and "Drowning Bear" (1960). The framed granite reliefs "Sitting Nude" (1961), "Mother with Child" (1963) and others need a connection with architecture.
In a more intimate, chamber style, many decorative marble female figures, such as the mantelpiece "Woman with a Vase" (1957), "Resting Woman" (1958), "Sleeping Woman" (1958), "Sorrow" (1960), as well as good surface distribution, are executed with a fine sense of form. and the rhythmic reliefs The Thinker and The Dancer (1960). Some of his marble figures have found application in decorative gardens, where they give a beautiful whitish accent to their surroundings when placed in the middle of flowers.
Motherly love, as one of the leading motifs of Starkopf's work, is poeticized in the two-figure composition "Mother with Child" (wood, 1959, marble, 1960). The compositions "Music" (1962) and "Kahekesi" (1963) are two-figure, openwork, compositions with a lyrical subtext, designed for wood, but initially cast in concrete. The epic material of Kalevipoja finds a convincing expression in a granite-like, slightly archaizing form in works such as the lying head of the tragically killed "Saarepiiga" (1960), the grief-stricken "Mourning Linda" (1961), and "Kalevipoeg and Saarepiiga" (1962), who embrace each other in passion. Some of Kalevipoja's motifs are initially designed in ceramic reliefs, waiting to be embodied in a large form.
In the 1960s, sad moods of resignation, death and mourning motifs become more frequent in the work of the old master, as if a distant premonition of the approaching end of a great life's work. It is reflected in a series of well-known works and numerous tombstones. If Starkopf treated the motif of death as something stunningly tragic and gruesome in his early works (for example, "The Drowned" and "Pietà"), now he depicts the motif of death with philosophical calmness, as a natural course of events that evokes only a painful feeling of grief in those left behind. With a calm and magnificent form, he conveys the tragic feeling from above in the reclining head of "Tired" (two versions, 1958), which the Latvian art critic K. Baumanis calls "a masterpiece created with a great creative reach and spacious atmosphere". The theme of the tragic death of young lovers in granite is the composition "Romeo and Juliet" (1963), consisting of two heads falling opposite each other. However, the motif of eternal peace is expressed even more effectively in the monumental head of a young woman, sunk on the shoulder (1963), which adorns prof. F. Lepa family grave site in Tartu.
In the granite reliefs, a deep feeling of grief with a lyrical tone is vividly expressed in the figure of the "Candle player" on the tombstone of the pianist K. Valdas (1956, a smaller version in ceramics 1960), in the head of a young woman depicted with a hand on the cheek ("Mure"), on the tombstone of E. Vardi (1959, variant in the Tartu Art Museum, 1960) and in his own on the tombstone of the writer P. Vallaku (1962) in the expression of a woman bent over a man's head on his deathbed. Successful granite figures of a grieving woman adorn the S.M. Beljanina's grave (1958) and prof. O. Halliku family grave site (1959, all at the Raadi cemetery in Tartu). The full-length figure of a man lying dead "Finis" adorns the tombstone of Academician P. Stradinš in the Riga Forest Cemetery (1960). Academician J.V. has a simple architectural solution different from the previous ones. Mill family tombstone with owl motif (1963).
With his tasteful tombstones skillfully adapted to the surroundings, Starkopf has greatly advanced the artistic level of our cemetery culture. The fact that the Raadi cemetery in Tartu has become like a museum of open-air sculpture, Starkopf and the admirers of his work have inestimable merit in this.
Starkopf has captured the numerous designs of his works in pewter and ceramics. Without pretending to be a ceramist, he lets all his works be glazed and fired by the specialists of the Tartu ceramics workshop of the art fund. In this collaboration, however, a unique ceramic creation was born, which forms a separate chapter not only in the artist's biography, but also in Estonian ceramics in general. The ceramics reflect all of Starkopf's characteristic art genres - single figures, group compositions, reliefs, portraits and animal sculptures. If his large sculptural creations tend towards strict seriousness, in ceramics you can often feel the free flight and captivating twists and turns of thought and fantasy seeking something unbounded, youthful vigor and sparkling spirit in the treatment of forms. He has used drawings from his youth as the starting point for a whole series of ceramic reliefs, which give them great freshness and charm. His ceramic works have spread to many homes.
With the exception of the Moscow period, Starkopf has regularly participated in domestic and all-Union art exhibitions with numerous works. 1958 At the sculpture exhibition of the Baltic republics organized in Riga, he was honored with the 1st all-Union prize. The old master's 70th birthday was celebrated with an exhibition of his works in Jõgeva. His personal exhibitions took place in 1960. in Tartu and in 1961. in Tallinn. His sculptural creations were also exhibited at Tartu art exhibitions in the park next to the art museum. R. Tamme's magnificent individual garden, decorated with numerous Starkopf sculptures, at the Jõgeva Plant Breeding Station became an attraction in itself. A lot of visitors were also found by prof. A beautifully designed garden in Tartu with the statues of the old master O. Hallik. They are joined by several other individual gardens in Tartu, with a smaller number of Starkopf sculptures.
The boundary stone between the old and new stages of development is the monumental granite bust "Drowning Man" (1931), which, in the form of a drowning young man, expressively conveys his tragic struggle between life and death. 1932-1933 small-scale figures and groups with a compact generalized approach to form, such as "Lovers", "Mourning Woman" and "Mother" date from The last of them, reproduced in the almanac "Pallas 1918-1933", also aroused the serious interest of Moscow sculptors, after which he was asked to send photos for a wider presentation of his work. 1935 Starkopf took part in the Estonian contemporary art exhibition organized in Moscow with four works, where both his and all Estonian sculptural creations attracted great attention. Also in 1934 in the completed series of wooden sculptures ("Mõtiskleja", "Sitting Woman" etc.) we see the decisive victory of a new approach.
Subsequently, the sculptor again finishes his works almost exclusively in granite and marble. Among them, two reliefs executed with an expressive composition and a good sense of rhythm (1935) should be highlighted, as well as expressive granite female figures "Evening" (1936-1937), "Kneeling" (1938), "Sitting Woman" (1938), whose magnificent sculptural worm is in good harmony.
Starkopf granite figures fit particularly well into nature and therefore attract the attention of art-loving garden owners. An excellent example of the synthesis of decorative sculpture and garden art in the 1930s is R. Tamme's beauty garden in Jõgeva, where several of Starkopf's outstanding works are concentrated, for example "Salome" (1935), "Sunbather" (1936), "The Zither Player" (1938), "à la Japanese woman" (1938) and others. The fountain group "Vase" (1936) is erected in the garden of A. Annisti in Tartu, the 3rd fountain figure "Child with fish" (1935) in the garden of Riga mnt, etc.
In the 1930s, Starkopf created a whole series of tombstones with a simple general architectural design, decorated with figures or reliefs, in several Estonian cemeteries. The most outstanding of them are the Mikuri Tamme family tombstone in Hager (1931), Ü. Reial's tombstone in Tartu (1933), A. Jõks' tombstone in Nõo (1934, with a monumental granite Pieta group). K.A. Rütmann's tombstone on Rahumäe in Tallinn (1938) and others. Both with his numerous decorative garden-park sculptures and tombstones, Starkopf made a valuable contribution to the development of garden art and cemetery culture of this period.
With his rich creations, Starkopf took part not only in domestic art exhibitions but also in all Estonian art exhibitions held abroad during that period, attracting serious attention in many places. Several trips to the art centers of Western Europe, Finland and Scandinavian countries have brought variety and stimulation to his busy days.
After the establishment of Soviet power in 1940. was appointed the director of the Starkopf Jaan Koorti National School of Applied Arts in Tallinn. His 1940s in the granite figures "Mother with child" and "Rhythm" presented at the autumn exhibition, the hitherto monumental static approach continues. Newly modeled figures and reliefs remain in plaster due to lack of time.
Interest in animal sculpture also arises: "Sitting Bear" is carved from granite (1940, final finish 1958). During the German occupation in 1942-1944, Starkopf worked as a sculpture teacher at the Higher Visual Arts Courses in Tartu. As a result of the war, many of his outstanding works were destroyed, but this did not break the artist's creative zeal. Among the new works of this time, we can mention several figures and reliefs made in wood, such as the elegiac relief "The Climber" (1941), the despair-filled "Anguish" (1942), the rustic "Piper" (1943) with a humorous undertone, the sharp rhythmic "Dancer" (1943). ) et al.
In the post-war period, A. Starkopf worked in 1944 from the fall as the head of the department of study and sculpture at the Tartu State Art Institute and from 1945 to 1948 as director. In cooperation with the collective, he applied all his energy and long-time pedagogic experience to rebuild the higher art school, which was completely destroyed during the Tartu battles. For this activity, he was awarded the 1945 Honorary title of meritorious artist of the Estonian SSR and was awarded the medal "For Bravery in the Great Patriotic War" and in 1946. "Work with the Red Flag" order. 1947 the title of professor in sculpture was confirmed. From 1948 until his dismissal in 1950, Starkopf served as dean of the Faculty of Sculpture and Graphics at the Art Institute. A number of talented young sculptors such as E. Kirs, O. Männi, O. Ehelaid, L. Iisrael and others have emerged from the Tartu State Art Institute under his guidance.
Having lost the ground under his feet in his homeland, Starkopf worked in 1950-1954. In Moscow, sculptor S.D. As a stonemason in Merkurov's studio, helping to carry out mainly portrait commissions. 1954 after that, A. Starkopf worked again in Tartu as a prolific artist.
Starkopf's work in the years 1944 - 1950 is characterized by a more concrete, more detailed treatment of motifs than before, based on the requirements of socialist realism, and an attempt to deepen the realistic approach to form, especially in portraiture. This tendency is less noticeable in his animal sculpture, which he continues to cultivate from now on. The monumental "Bear" (1943-1944) executed in a generalized form similar to granite adorns the green area of Harju street in Tallinn, the small expressive marble "Ice Bear" (1944) in R. Tamme's garden in Jõgeval. A small "Black Bear" (tree, 1945) balancing on a ball with a humorous tone is acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, a snoozing "White Bear" (tree, 1945) by the Tallinn State Art Museum. Starkopf returns to the bear motif several times.
The two-figure relief "Musicians" (1942-1945) carved into wood in a personal, archaizing style, as well as two deeply emotional "Madonnas" (relief and bust, 1945) are deeply felt. These works are among the best of Starkopf's work. The woodblock print "Virgats" (1947) captures the flying speed of the Soviet cavalryman. Due to excessive detailing, the sports-themed composition "Wrestlers" (tree, 1948) has been less successful. In those years, Starkopf works extensively in the field of portrait sculpture, modeling dozens of busts and heads of people from various professions. Due to the lack of material and work opportunities, most of them are plaster, only a few portraits are carved in granite, such as N. Kummits (1945) and B. Võrse (1947). The personality cult's time-restricted understanding of socialist realism has also left its stamp on Starkopf's portrait work of that time. Requesting to convey portrait likeness down to the smallest details, many of his portraits also lose their vital character due to the lack of generalization ability and remain dry. The creative attitude can still be felt in, for example, M. Pukits (1946), the Korean Li Kai (1948), the art student Belov (1950) and others. in portraits. But the studio work done in those years bears fruit in Starkopf's later portrait work.
The years spent in Moscow from 1950 to 1954 form a barren gap in Starkopf's work. Mentionable are only Portrait reliefs of A.S. Pushkin and M. Gorky for reproduction in mass circulation. Returning to his hometown, Starkopf initially devotes himself to portraying Estonian literary classics. The first to be completed in 1955. J. Liiv and A. Kitzberg's small portrait plaques in electroplating. Several years of careful work on solving the portrait of A. Kitzberg followed, until 1959. over several intermediate stages, a life-size granite bust of the writer will be completed for his tombstone in Tartu. He works just as diligently with the portraits of the poet K.J. Peterson's portraits, the final result of which is an expressive, youthfully exuberant portrait bust (plaster, 1957) and a standing half-figure (wood, 1957). A monumental portrait in granite (1959) of the childhood friend and encourager, the writer A. Tassa, follows. However, the peak of Starkopf's portrait creation is marked by the psychologically expressive, formal portraits of painters K. Mägi (1962) and N. Triik (1963). Teoks has J. Liiv's large-scale portrait relief from 1955. based on the completed plaque.
However, Starkopf's main field remains figure sculpture, which he cultivated with unceasing zeal in the 1960s. He restores his works destroyed in the whirlwind of war, takes the material to works previously completed in plaster and constantly models new ones. In terms of material, his work is still very versatile, reflecting the wide sphere of expression of the human psyche - from the bright joy of dance and the happiness of love to the deep resignation of old age and the tragic pathos of death. Beside the decorative garden-park sculptures, more and more works that express a philosophical reflection on the nature and destiny of a person permeate his work. The formal treatment of his works is strictly grand, masterful and stylish. As materials, he now mainly uses granite, marble and concrete as a technological intermediate; numerous small designs are captured in electroplating, pewter, and in recent years abundantly also in ceramics. A series of decorative fountain figures with a varied composition are made in granite, such as the self-enclosed compact "Abandoned" (1957 and 1958), the beautiful upright silhouette effect "Stone Flower" (1958), the quietly sleepy "Water Rose" (1960). Among the numerous garden sculptures, the vivid "Coquette" (1959), the dignified and calm "Eva" (1960), the active turning movement "Guard" (1960) and several others make a good impression against the background of nature. Among the animalistic granite sculptures, the most outstanding are "Circus Bear" (1959) and "Drowning Bear" (1960). The framed granite reliefs "Sitting Nude" (1961), "Mother with Child" (1963) and others need a connection with architecture.
In a more intimate, chamber style, many decorative marble female figures, such as the mantelpiece "Woman with a Vase" (1957), "Resting Woman" (1958), "Sleeping Woman" (1958), "Sorrow" (1960), as well as good surface distribution, are executed with a fine sense of form. and the rhythmic reliefs The Thinker and The Dancer (1960). Some of his marble figures have found application in decorative gardens, where they give a beautiful whitish accent to their surroundings when placed in the middle of flowers.
Motherly love, as one of the leading motifs of Starkopf's work, is poeticized in the two-figure composition "Mother with Child" (wood, 1959, marble, 1960). The compositions "Music" (1962) and "Kahekesi" (1963) are two-figure, openwork, compositions with a lyrical subtext, designed for wood, but initially cast in concrete. The epic material of Kalevipoja finds a convincing expression in a granite-like, slightly archaizing form in works such as the lying head of the tragically killed "Saarepiiga" (1960), the grief-stricken "Mourning Linda" (1961), and "Kalevipoeg and Saarepiiga" (1962), who embrace each other in passion. Some of Kalevipoja's motifs are initially designed in ceramic reliefs, waiting to be embodied in a large form.
In the 1960s, sad moods of resignation, death and mourning motifs become more frequent in the work of the old master, as if a distant premonition of the approaching end of a great life's work. It is reflected in a series of well-known works and numerous tombstones. If Starkopf treated the motif of death as something stunningly tragic and gruesome in his early works (for example, "The Drowned" and "Pietà"), now he depicts the motif of death with philosophical calmness, as a natural course of events that evokes only a painful feeling of grief in those left behind. With a calm and magnificent form, he conveys the tragic feeling from above in the reclining head of "Tired" (two versions, 1958), which the Latvian art critic K. Baumanis calls "a masterpiece created with a great creative reach and spacious atmosphere". The theme of the tragic death of young lovers in granite is the composition "Romeo and Juliet" (1963), consisting of two heads falling opposite each other. However, the motif of eternal peace is expressed even more effectively in the monumental head of a young woman, sunk on the shoulder (1963), which adorns prof. F. Lepa family grave site in Tartu.
In the granite reliefs, a deep feeling of grief with a lyrical tone is vividly expressed in the figure of the "Candle player" on the tombstone of the pianist K. Valdas (1956, a smaller version in ceramics 1960), in the head of a young woman depicted with a hand on the cheek ("Mure"), on the tombstone of E. Vardi (1959, variant in the Tartu Art Museum, 1960) and in his own on the tombstone of the writer P. Vallaku (1962) in the expression of a woman bent over a man's head on his deathbed. Successful granite figures of a grieving woman adorn the S.M. Beljanina's grave (1958) and prof. O. Halliku family grave site (1959, all at the Raadi cemetery in Tartu). The full-length figure of a man lying dead "Finis" adorns the tombstone of Academician P. Stradinš in the Riga Forest Cemetery (1960). Academician J.V. has a simple architectural solution different from the previous ones. Mill family tombstone with owl motif (1963).
With his tasteful tombstones skillfully adapted to the surroundings, Starkopf has greatly advanced the artistic level of our cemetery culture. The fact that the Raadi cemetery in Tartu has become like a museum of open-air sculpture, Starkopf and the admirers of his work have inestimable merit in this.
Starkopf has captured the numerous designs of his works in pewter and ceramics. Without pretending to be a ceramist, he lets all his works be glazed and fired by the specialists of the Tartu ceramics workshop of the art fund. In this collaboration, however, a unique ceramic creation was born, which forms a separate chapter not only in the artist's biography, but also in Estonian ceramics in general. The ceramics reflect all of Starkopf's characteristic art genres - single figures, group compositions, reliefs, portraits and animal sculptures. If his large sculptural creations tend towards strict seriousness, in ceramics you can often feel the free flight and captivating twists and turns of thought and fantasy seeking something unbounded, youthful vigor and sparkling spirit in the treatment of forms. He has used drawings from his youth as the starting point for a whole series of ceramic reliefs, which give them great freshness and charm. His ceramic works have spread to many homes.
With the exception of the Moscow period, Starkopf has regularly participated in domestic and all-Union art exhibitions with numerous works. 1958 At the sculpture exhibition of the Baltic republics organized in Riga, he was honored with the 1st all-Union prize. The old master's 70th birthday was celebrated with an exhibition of his works in Jõgeva. His personal exhibitions took place in 1960. in Tartu and in 1961. in Tallinn. His sculptural creations were also exhibited at Tartu art exhibitions in the park next to the art museum. R. Tamme's magnificent individual garden, decorated with numerous Starkopf sculptures, at the Jõgeva Plant Breeding Station became an attraction in itself. A lot of visitors were also found by prof. A beautifully designed garden in Tartu with the statues of the old master O. Hallik. They are joined by several other individual gardens in Tartu, with a smaller number of Starkopf sculptures.
Anton Starkopf died on 30. December 1966 in his scuplture-studio. From his marriage with Aliide Leppik (from 1930 on Aliide Starkopf) he left behind two children: Mari-Ann and Jüri-Aleksander.