Aivar Kurvits

Artist is based in: Estonia

Aivar Kurvits (born 1959 in Tartu) is Estonian painter and printmaker who is associated primarily with art brut, and its synonym, outsider art. Kurvits was separated from his family as a child due to congenital poliomyelitis. He spent his childhood in various orphanages and the Haapsalu Sanatorium Boarding School, thereafter living in nursing homes. At the end of the 1990s, when the art world was rediscovering outsider artists, and the first Art Summers were organised in Tammiste, those involved with the Academia Non Grata at that time were actively searching for local talent in this field.

Thus, Aivar Kurvits found his way to the alternative art school, and by participating in the studies during the subsequent years, acquired a basic knowledge in painting, drawing, graphic art and art history. This was followed by participation in numerous exhibitions here and abroad. Aivar Kurvits can be regarded as the most productive representative of outsider art in Estonia. And he was awarded the Art Prize by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in 2005, and the annual Pärnu Art Prize in 2009.