Gallery: Major embroidery exhibition opens in Viljandi

A major exhibition on embroidery centered on Maria Peet, a Saaremaa artist whose work is distinguished by its rare sensitivity and unmistakable style, opened at the Kondas Center.

Among Maria Peet's 200 works are embroidered pictures, tapestries, paintings, knitted items and Muhu slippers. She developed her own distinctive "needle painting" technique, embroidering childhood memories, Saaremaa landscapes, farm life, village events, people and animals. Maria was a farmwife, later worked as a calf keeper during the Soviet-era collective farm system and was the mother of eight children. Her creative passion did not fully emerge until after she retired.

"Then it suddenly started and just exploded. She did nothing but paint, draw, embroider and knit. It was constant, constant, constant work right up until the day before she died," said Maria Peet's son, Olev Peet.

"She would simply pick up a piece of fabric and start embroidering — never using a frame or anything like that. She just kept going. Whatever emerged, emerged. No one knew what it would become until the work was finished. It seems she didn't know either," said Maria Peet's granddaughter, Kertu Viikmaa.

Maria Peet's work came to the Kondas Center after a family friend was inspired by seeing a similar exhibition by a professionally trained artist in Oslo.

"They looked exactly like Maria Peet's embroideries — the technique was essentially the same. I thought, why not introduce the Estonian public to a comparable artist who emerged from their own midst, someone virtually no one had known anything about before," said Irena Tammik, a family friend from Muhu.

Art historian Mari Vallikivi believes that, at a time when textiles, knitting and embroidery are increasingly used in contemporary art, Maria Peet's work has been unjustly overlooked.

"She embroidered from memory, depicting all those farm chores from her childhood, everyday life and the surrounding environment. She became a great chronicler of history without probably realizing how valuable the material she was creating would be," Vallikivi said.

Alongside Maria Peet's works, the Kondas Center is also exhibiting the extraordinary creations of Harri Aer, Hilda Vilde and other masters of embroidery. The exhibition runs through October 31.