ARTIST’S STATEMENT

The earliest memory I have of my father is when I was 3 years old and my mother left me in his charge for the afternoon. We snuck out of the house together and he took me to an exhibition of constructivists. My mother was quite cross with us when she found out! My father had always wanted to be an artist. He attended “Pallas” Art School against his family wishes. There, in 1921, he took part in an exhibition with K. Magi, E. Wiiralt, F. Sannamees and A. Vabbe who became well known in their respective media. Art was not to be taken seriously, however, and artists were considered flighty and irresponsible. So my father bowed to family pressure and left art school to pursue studies in law, eventually becoming a judge. He burned all his paintings. I do not have any of his paintings to remember him by. However what does remain are a few photographs he took and strong memories of his influence on me.

Whenever I paint, I feel as though my father’s hands were guiding me. His spirit sits on my shoulder and whispers in my ear, “change that shape” or “correct that color”. Even though he ceased to actively pursue art himself, he always encouraged me to paint and draw as a child. He introduced me to watercolours, and showed me how to make paper dolls and design their clothing. Unfortunately, he was taken away from me in 1941 when he was deported to Siberia. I was only 14 and missed him very much, but his influence stayed with me all my life.

In 1944 I fled Estonia with my mother Alide Roht. We went to Vienna where I began medical school. My mother was a dentist and felt that the pursuit of sciences was a respectable and practical direction for my life. I tried to comply, but my heart was not in it. Instead of studying for anatomy and chemistry tests, I took art classes on the side. My studies were interrupted when Vienna became unsafe for us and we fled to the safety of the Alps. At the end of the war we stayed in various displaced persons camps and finally, in 1948, emigrated to Canada.

The “New World” meant a new beginning for me as well as many other immigrants. I met my future husband, a very supportive man, who encouraged me to pursue my artistic interests in the pragmatic field of fashion design. By 1953, I found myself armed with a diploma from the Montreal Fashion Arts Academy. I landed my first job as a designer and for the next 18 years worked in the fashion industry in Montreal and New York designing clothing for women and children. Throughout this period, I kept painting and taking art courses, attended classes at the Art Student’s League in New York City and went on retreats with other artists. Upon retiring from the clothing business I returned to finally pursue my dream full time. I graduated from the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1976 and have been painting and exhibiting continuously ever since. I see myself primarily as a colorist and the majority of my work has been non-objective. I often work from collages I have constructed, where I play with rhythm and movement of line and space, which are affected by the colors and values I choose to utilize. My art is not necessarily on any particular theme. What interests me is process…what makes me happiest is the act of painting. I leave the interpretation to the viewer.

Over the years I have explored various media including oils and acrylics. I have now returned to my first love, watercolours, and prefer to work with them on a large scale. I owe my dexterity with watercolour medium to Carl Molno, a New York artist with whom I studied for several years. I owe my inspiration and dedication to painting to my father, who instilled in me the love for visual arts and to whom I will always be grateful. And I owe my perseverance and strength to the lifelong support by my best friend and late husband Alex Poznanski, who encouraged me to paint everyday.

Helga Roht Poznanski

BIOGRAPHY

Helga Roht Poznanski was born on 26 June 1927 in Tartu, the daughter of the judge Julius Roht and dentist Alide Roht, and granddaughter of prominent business man Gustav Roht. She is the niece, on her father’s side, of Estonian writer, Richard Roht. Her work reflects memories of her childhood and school years, where she lived on Tähe Street in Tartu, and also reflects her time spent in Pskov and Tallinn, where they moved for her father’s work.

In 1941, Helga’s father was arrested by the Soviets for being part of the intelligentsia, and sent to Siberia. Helga herself narrowly escaped the same fate, returning home early from a visit to her uncle’s on the very night that her uncle and his family were also arrested and sent to Siberia.

She and her mother fled to Vienna, where Helga briefly attended medical school at her mother’s behest, but secretly also attended art lessons at the Vienna Academy of Art. Here she also had a brief encounter with her father’s one-time schoolmate, Eduard Wiiralt, who encouraged her to continue to pursue her passion for the arts.

The day before Vienna was taken by the Soviet army, Helga and her mother fled to the alps, briefly living in Innsbruck and in various displaced persons camps in Austria and Germany, before successfully emigrating to Montreal, Canada through Bremenhaven in 1948.

At a social gathering, Helga met her husband, Alex Poznanski, a Polish refugee and electrical engineer who had just graduated from university and they married in 1949. He passionately encouraged her to continue her art studies through the profession of fashion design.

In 1950, she and Alex gave birth to their only child, Ilona Poznanski, now Kennedy, an artist in her own right. In 1952, Helga graduated from the Montreal Fashion Arts Academy and in 1959, the family moved to Long Island, New York.

Helga worked for 18 years as a fashion designer in the Montreal and New York fashion houses, designing women’s and children’s clothing and often taking business trips to Paris. She simultaneously continued to paint and undertake several art courses, and ventured for the first time to Kennebunkport, Maine where she studied under Carl Molno, and eventually purchased their summer home with views of the Atlantic coast.

In 1964-1966, Helga studied painting at the New York Art Students’ League, of which she is still a member. In 1972, Alex’s work took them to Boston, where Helga still lives and works. There she continued her art studies in 1974-1978 at the School of Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where she won the Clarissa Bartlett grant and an opportunity to exhibit her work at the Boston Art Museum.

Helga’s artwork began with abstract compositions and collages, and continued with photorealistic architectural fragments in the 1970s and 1980s. During this period she also created hyperrealistic botanical series, covering entire canvases with close-up plant and floral details.

More recently, Helga’s focus has been in abstracts, mastering a technique of dry watercolour, so saturated they are often mistaken for gouache. She creates geometric compositions, structured collages pushing and pulling shapes and colours.

In connection with her grandfather’s ownership of a printing and book-binding publishing house, Helga joined the Association of Estonian Bookbinders in 1999, and participated with her first watercolour book in 2000 at the exhibition Scripta manent II. She has also been a correspondent member of the Art Society Pallas since 2009 in honour of her father’s memory. She has participated in numerous exhibitions throughout her career and her works can be found in many selected public collections, museums and private collections worldwide.

In 2018, Helga was awarded the 2019 James and Audrey Foster Prize Award, which will also result in an exhibition organized by Ruth Erickson, Mannion Family Curator, on view at the Boston ICA from August 21, 2019 to January 5, 2020.

Helga still lives and works in Boston and Kennebunkport, Maine.

Contribution to biography text by Kersti Koll.