Don't throw away scales

  • 2000-10-19
  • Andrei Titov
Enn Koort does many things. His house differs from neighbors' - the gate, fence and even the dog's kennel are artistic to some extent. Koort is the real and unusual artist - he makes wonderful pictures of fish skin and scales useless for everyone.

When you look at the works of this 75-year-old amateur artist who never learned art, you realize he has a special gift. Some people can see figures in the clouds. Koort can see them in fish scales and little whimsy-looking roots.

Unpleasant expectations - oh, that disgusting fish smell - disappear when you realize there is not any specific scent in the artist's house in Lagedi village not far from Tallinn.

"I do not use the skin of raw fish, but only of dried or smoked ones. After you separate skin from the intestines, it dries up. Then you treat it with vinegar and it has no smell at all," explained Koort.

Even Koort's cat does not feel the pictures are made of fish, and paces up and down the room without paying any attention to them.

Koort tried to make his first pictures when he was about 35. He used to work in trade, but spent almost all of his free time in the sea or near the river.

"I was completely into fishing and one day I realized I had fell in love with sea. So I decided to make something of fish, for example of fish skin," said Koort.

All his pictures are absolute improvisation and have no names. "Everyone can imagine what he is looking at - landscape or seaside, sunrise or sunset, snow or rain, flock of birds, shoal of fish, forest, sky or anything else," said the artist.

It doesn't matter what kind of fish is used, but Koort likes pike, cod and perch. Up to 26 skins are needed for one picture.

He began an impromptu class. Take a piece of plywood, make an abstract collage of skins, and the picture is ready. Frame and glaze it.

Koort does not sell his works, but said his children may sell them someday after his death. Koort's dream is to organize a big exhibition of his works. He has taken part in some art fairs in remote regions of Estonia.

Koort said he doesn't know any other artists using the same materials: "But I would meet them with great pleasure," he said. "My great-grandson is four years old and he says he would like to do the same art. I hope he will."