04 October 2025, 14:00
Viive Noor “ARS AMATORIA – ARS MORIENDI”
Introduction
On Friday, September 12 at 4:00 PM a solo exhibition by Viive Noor titled “ARS AMATORIA – ARS MORIENDI’’ will open at Pärnu City Gallery in the Town Hall. You are welcome to attend!
Viive Noor is one of Estonia’s best-known illustration artists, curator of numerous domestic and international illustration exhibitions and exhibition series, a beloved teacher, and a master who has been awarded many prizes and art awards both home and abroad. Since 1978, she has participated in more than 400 international exhibitions in over 30 countries, from Japan and Iran to the United States and France. Thanks to her 90 solo exhibitions, her presence has been particularly strong in Estonia, but has now expanded to Northern and Eastern Europe as well. As a central figure in today’s international world of illustration, she has introduced Estonian book graphics to the whole world.
At this exhibition, Viive Noor presents herself as a master of magical fluidity, letting viewers into her secret gardens and enchanted forests, where the most surprising creatures and associations of ideas have taken shape.
Earlier this year, curator and journalist Hajra Salinas introduced the current nature of her work: “To describe Viive Noor’s work solely in terms of medium or style would be to miss its emotional and philosophical undercurrents. / … / Her creations emerge from personal introspection and universal emotion: love, loss, delight, dread. / … / Today, she leans heavily into mixed media—pen, collage, touches of gouache—always created by hand. The process of making is for her a tactile, intuitive dialogue between artist and surface, and she steers clear of digital methods, preferring the immediacy and intimacy of manual creation.”
And more: “Emotion is not only present in her themes, but also in her palette. A recurring comment from critics and viewers alike is the singular quality of her use of black. / … / It invites viewers to experience familiar truths from a renewed perspective, bathed in a light they did not expect.“
Soul landscapes and dramatic emotional states open up on Viive Noor’s pictures. When you wander through these pictures, you can notice extreme attention to detail, allegories presented in sparse, symbolic images, and aestheticism in the best sense of the word.
In the Estonian language, there is an emotional figure of speech: written with the blood of one’s heart. Viive Noor has also allowed her fairy-tale creatures to open their hearts and use the blood of their hearts. Delicate female figures, very similar to the artist herself in portraiture, carry the hearts torn from their chests in the palms of their hands. They offer their hearts to love and stitch blankets for their beloved with their heart’s blood. In the paintings of Trust and other pictorial narratives, dangerous undercurrents can be sensed in the moments when a person has dared to step outside the protective boundaries of everyday life.
Many Estonian readers may recognize the characters from Pu Songling’s Chinese classic short story collection “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”, which was published in Estonian nearly forty years ago under the title “Libarebased ja kooljad”, or “Fox Spirits and Ghost Lovers”. Inspired by this book, Viive Noor curated an exhibition of illustrations “Fox Spirit. Fox Charm” (2021). In the introduction of this exhibition, she wrote: “This creature from the Eastern folklore should not be confused with the werewolf that is common in our folk tales. The fox spirit is a mysterious shape-shifter, capable of transforming into a beautiful woman, an educated scholar, or an ordinary forest fox. It can become a cunning seducer or a loyal and good spirit.” Viive Noor’s fox spirits and werewolves are the native inhabitants of her magical forest, but even they are threatened by traps, and the bony hand of death holds a bloody rope that restrains the free movement of a wonderful creature in the night forest.
Western and Slavic tales of werewolves depict male creatures possessed by evil and deprived of their free will. In Viive Noor’s extraordinary images, a giant wolf creeps into a city at night, embodying the forces of evil that even today seek to steal the independence of its sister nation. In the Estonian folklore, and also in a werewolf story by Aino Kallas that is based on the tradition of Hiiumaa Island, a young woman who yearns to break free from village society “runs with the wolves”, hearing her sisters calling her from the forest. Aino Kallas published “The Wolf Bride” in her 1923 collection “Surmav Eros” (“Deadly Eros”). In Viive Noor’s illustrated love stories, Eros usually meets Thanatos somewhere. However, her illustrations of the Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood do not feature the classic story of the evil wolf created by Charles Perrault. Instead, we encounter a love story that is as ambiguous and complicated as real life. According to the artist, she believed even as a child that grownups had simply misunderstood this fairy tale.
“The Little Mermaid”, written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1836, is undoubtedly one of the most romantic fairy tales, and at the same time wonderfully tragic. This fairy tale inspired Viive Noor’s drawing of the daughter of the sea who sacrificed her heart (actually her beautiful voice). Her Little Mermaid began its journey in 2011 at the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre in Tallinn as a part of “Sea Fairy Tales”, an exhibition of illustrators from the Baltic Sea countries. This year, she showed her Mermaid at the exhibition “Sea of Change” along with two pictures created later. The world has changed ominously. Only the skeleton of the Mermaid has remained in the polluted sea, and plastic bags that trash the sea float elegantly around her. In a strange way, they remind us that in 1981, Viive Noor graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts cum laude in two fields: graphic design and fashion.
Juta Kivimäe
Special thanks to Estonian Graphic Designers Association, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Juta Kivimäe, Piret Niinepuu-Kiik, Mari Ets, Anu Kehman.
After the opening of the exhibition “ARS AMATORIA – ARS MORIENDI”, two exhibitions will be opened at MONA The Museum of New Art (Rüütli 40a) at 5:30 PM. At 6:30 PM an exhibition by Inessa Saarits and Victoria Björk titled “Off key” will open at Pärnu City Gallery’s Artists’ House.
Entrance to Pärnu City Gallery is free.
Nikolai 27, Pärnu / Uus 4, Pärnu
Pärnu City Gallery is open: Tue-Fri 11-17, Sat 11-14
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Introduction
On Friday, September 12 at 4:00 PM a solo exhibition by Viive Noor titled “ARS AMATORIA – ARS MORIENDI’’ will open at Pärnu City Gallery in the Town Hall. You are welcome to attend!
Viive Noor is one of Estonia’s best-known illustration artists, curator of numerous domestic and international illustration exhibitions and exhibition series, a beloved teacher, and a master who has been awarded many prizes and art awards both home and abroad. Since 1978, she has participated in more than 400 international exhibitions in over 30 countries, from Japan and Iran to the United States and France. Thanks to her 90 solo exhibitions, her presence has been particularly strong in Estonia, but has now expanded to Northern and Eastern Europe as well. As a central figure in today’s international world of illustration, she has introduced Estonian book graphics to the whole world.
At this exhibition, Viive Noor presents herself as a master of magical fluidity, letting viewers into her secret gardens and enchanted forests, where the most surprising creatures and associations of ideas have taken shape.
Earlier this year, curator and journalist Hajra Salinas introduced the current nature of her work: “To describe Viive Noor’s work solely in terms of medium or style would be to miss its emotional and philosophical undercurrents. / … / Her creations emerge from personal introspection and universal emotion: love, loss, delight, dread. / … / Today, she leans heavily into mixed media—pen, collage, touches of gouache—always created by hand. The process of making is for her a tactile, intuitive dialogue between artist and surface, and she steers clear of digital methods, preferring the immediacy and intimacy of manual creation.”
And more: “Emotion is not only present in her themes, but also in her palette. A recurring comment from critics and viewers alike is the singular quality of her use of black. / … / It invites viewers to experience familiar truths from a renewed perspective, bathed in a light they did not expect.“
Soul landscapes and dramatic emotional states open up on Viive Noor’s pictures. When you wander through these pictures, you can notice extreme attention to detail, allegories presented in sparse, symbolic images, and aestheticism in the best sense of the word.
In the Estonian language, there is an emotional figure of speech: written with the blood of one’s heart. Viive Noor has also allowed her fairy-tale creatures to open their hearts and use the blood of their hearts. Delicate female figures, very similar to the artist herself in portraiture, carry the hearts torn from their chests in the palms of their hands. They offer their hearts to love and stitch blankets for their beloved with their heart’s blood. In the paintings of Trust and other pictorial narratives, dangerous undercurrents can be sensed in the moments when a person has dared to step outside the protective boundaries of everyday life.
Many Estonian readers may recognize the characters from Pu Songling’s Chinese classic short story collection “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”, which was published in Estonian nearly forty years ago under the title “Libarebased ja kooljad”, or “Fox Spirits and Ghost Lovers”. Inspired by this book, Viive Noor curated an exhibition of illustrations “Fox Spirit. Fox Charm” (2021). In the introduction of this exhibition, she wrote: “This creature from the Eastern folklore should not be confused with the werewolf that is common in our folk tales. The fox spirit is a mysterious shape-shifter, capable of transforming into a beautiful woman, an educated scholar, or an ordinary forest fox. It can become a cunning seducer or a loyal and good spirit.” Viive Noor’s fox spirits and werewolves are the native inhabitants of her magical forest, but even they are threatened by traps, and the bony hand of death holds a bloody rope that restrains the free movement of a wonderful creature in the night forest.
Western and Slavic tales of werewolves depict male creatures possessed by evil and deprived of their free will. In Viive Noor’s extraordinary images, a giant wolf creeps into a city at night, embodying the forces of evil that even today seek to steal the independence of its sister nation. In the Estonian folklore, and also in a werewolf story by Aino Kallas that is based on the tradition of Hiiumaa Island, a young woman who yearns to break free from village society “runs with the wolves”, hearing her sisters calling her from the forest. Aino Kallas published “The Wolf Bride” in her 1923 collection “Surmav Eros” (“Deadly Eros”). In Viive Noor’s illustrated love stories, Eros usually meets Thanatos somewhere. However, her illustrations of the Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood do not feature the classic story of the evil wolf created by Charles Perrault. Instead, we encounter a love story that is as ambiguous and complicated as real life. According to the artist, she believed even as a child that grownups had simply misunderstood this fairy tale.
“The Little Mermaid”, written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1836, is undoubtedly one of the most romantic fairy tales, and at the same time wonderfully tragic. This fairy tale inspired Viive Noor’s drawing of the daughter of the sea who sacrificed her heart (actually her beautiful voice). Her Little Mermaid began its journey in 2011 at the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre in Tallinn as a part of “Sea Fairy Tales”, an exhibition of illustrators from the Baltic Sea countries. This year, she showed her Mermaid at the exhibition “Sea of Change” along with two pictures created later. The world has changed ominously. Only the skeleton of the Mermaid has remained in the polluted sea, and plastic bags that trash the sea float elegantly around her. In a strange way, they remind us that in 1981, Viive Noor graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts cum laude in two fields: graphic design and fashion.
Juta Kivimäe
Special thanks to Estonian Graphic Designers Association, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Juta Kivimäe, Piret Niinepuu-Kiik, Mari Ets, Anu Kehman.
After the opening of the exhibition “ARS AMATORIA – ARS MORIENDI”, two exhibitions will be opened at MONA The Museum of New Art (Rüütli 40a) at 5:30 PM. At 6:30 PM an exhibition by Inessa Saarits and Victoria Björk titled “Off key” will open at Pärnu City Gallery’s Artists’ House.
Entrance to Pärnu City Gallery is free.
Nikolai 27, Pärnu / Uus 4, Pärnu
Pärnu City Gallery is open: Tue-Fri 11-17, Sat 11-14
