Ülle Meister heirs donate 64 works to Estonian Art Museum

The heirs of artist Ülle Meister have donated 64 of her works to the Estonian Art Museum, ERR reported. The donation was made on August 27, when Meister would have turned 78.

The collection includes 18 watercolours, four drawings and 42 graphic works.

Meister is known as an illustrator of numerous children’s books, and her work can be found in almost every Estonian home. She collaborated with prominent children’s authors and poets, including Leelo Tungal, Heljo Mänd and Kuulo Kutsar.

Many of the original illustrations for Meister’s books have been held at the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre since 2023.

The graphic works, drawings and watercolours donated to the Estonian Art Museum provide an important addition to the overview of developments in Estonian graphic art from the 1960s to the 1990s. They reflect, among other subjects, the Soviet-era culture of mountain hiking and interest in Finno-Ugric peoples and their heritage.

Meister was born in 1948 in Lüganuse, Virumaa. She graduated from the Estonian State Institute of Art in 1973 as a book designer and illustrator and began working as an art editor at the Valgus publishing house.

She later worked as a freelance illustrator and artist and was a member of the Estonian Artists’ Union, the Estonian Association of Graphic Designers and the Estonian Watercolourists’ Association. Meister died in 2021.