The walls of Tartu's E-Kunstisalong gallery are now filled with paintings created by artist Navitrolla more than three decades ago between 1988 and 1991.

"The depressing prospects of the Soviet era and the uncompromising nature of adolescence were my main sources of inspiration," Navitrolla said of the years when he created the works.

"As an artist, I was looking for a way to make my work stand out from that of other artists. It was an incredibly difficult task. But at some point, I realized that the most important thing was to be myself. There is no need to pose or preen; you have to paint from what is truly in your heart."

However, at the time, Navitrolla was far from happy with the works. When he left home in 1991, he threw them unceremoniously into a slurry pit out of sheer frustration.

"I can say with complete sincerity that I tried my best, but I was not satisfied with the result," he said.

"At that time, I was living in the pigsty on our farm. That's where I painted these works. When I realized that I was a terribly untalented artist, I took all these paintings and threw them into the slurry pit behind the pigsty and left home with nothing in my pocket," Navitrolla told ERR.

It was only when the pit was emptied a few months later, that the artist's mother discovered the paintings and rescued everything that could be salvaged.

In hindsight, Navitrolla, who was unaware for many years that they had survived, feels that "soaking the paintings in urine had a positive effect on them. "He believes it is precisely these works that help understand his journey and development as an artist ever since.

Among the works on display at the E-Kunstisalong in Tartu, a painting of a dog, which the artist considers closest to his heart. It is also the first work bearing the signature "Navitrolla," having been given the name by Võru County poet Kauksi Ülle (Navi and Trolla are also two villages in Võru County, close to where the artist grew up.)

Navitrolla once described his journey to becoming an artist as like building a wall.

"Stone by stone, the wall grows taller. It is never the case that you go to sleep unknown and wake up in the morning as a recognized artist," he explained.

"Showing the world in its essential absurdity – that has always fascinated me, and I have wanted to convey this in order to open a door in people, where we are all a little childlike and curious, so that we don't lose that," said Navitrolla.

In addition to Navitrolla's first attempts at painting animals, the E-Kunstisalong exhibition also features some of his early portrait and landscape works.

"This red painting, which is at the center of the exhibition, already shows something of his later approach to painting landscapes. But these very first oil paintings are something completely different. They really have a raw and genuine atmosphere of experimentation," said gallery owner Laura Kristiin Lubi.

Navitrolla admitted that, looking back, the works on display seem intense even to him.

"They are like foundation blocks on which my personal story rests – what are these strange paths of exploration, how have they gone in the wrong direction, though some of them already show promise," he told ERR.

More information about Navitrolla's exhibition "Paintings from the Previous Millenium" is available here.

The exhibition will remain on display until December 31.

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