{{Short description|Estonian painter and graphic artist (1904–1993)}} {{Infobox person | name = Karin Luts | image = Karin Luts rannas lähi.tif | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|04|29|df=yes}} | birth_place = Riidaja Parish, Governorate of Livonia | death_date = {{Death date and age|1993|05|14|1904|04|29|df=yes}} | death_place = Stockholm, Sweden | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = | education = | employer = | occupation = | title = | spouse = Peeter Arumaa | relatives = Meta Luts (sister)<br>Julius Gentalen (cousin) | signature = }} '''Karin Luts''' (29 April 1904 – 14 May 1993) was an Estonian painter and a graphic artist.<ref name="Torn">{{cite web | last=Torn | first=Vilve | title=7 põnevat fakti: müts maha iseseisva naise ees | website=Naisteleht | url=https://naisteleht.ohtuleht.ee/990494/7-ponevat-fakti-muts-maha-iseseisva-naise-ees | language=et | access-date=2020-06-17}}</ref><ref name="Guides 2019 p. 127">{{cite book | last=Guides | first=I. | title=Insight Guides Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania | publisher=Apa Publications | series=Insight Guides | year=2019 | isbn=978-1-78919-829-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=llWXDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT127 | access-date=2020-06-17 | page=127}}</ref><ref name="Art Museum 2002">{{cite book | last1=Rosenfeld | first1=A. | last2=Dodge | first2=N.T. | last3=Dodge | first3=N.C. | author4=Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum | title=Art of the Baltics: The Struggle for Freedom of Artistic Expression Under the Soviets, 1945-1991 | publisher=Rutgers University Press | series=Dodge Soviet nonconformist art publication series | year=2002 | isbn=978-0-8135-3042-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r73fmcC5itkC&pg=PA41 | access-date=2020-06-17 | page=41}}</ref>
==Biography== Karin Luts was born in Riidaja in Valga County to parents Andres and Juuli Mari Luts (''née'' Gentalen) in April 1904 where she was one of three sisters, Lonny, Meta and Karin, and a brother Elmar. Her father was a teacher. She completed her studies in Pärnu Estonian School Society Progymnasium in 1922. She had studied under artist {{Interlanguage link|Konstantin Süvalo|et}}. Luts then went to the Art College in Pallas, Tartu to study with Konrad Mägi. When Mägi died she continued with Ado Vabbe. Luts learned etching and lithography from Magnus Zeller. Luts graduated in 1928. In 1928 Luts spent a year at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière with André Lhote before returning to Estonia to work as an artist in Tallinn.<ref name="Lõuna-Eesti Postimees 2006">{{cite web | title=Juured hargnesid Riidajast pärit õdede radadele | website=Lõuna-Eesti Postimees | date=2006-06-13 | url=https://lounapostimees.postimees.ee/2213137/juured-hargnesid-riidajast-parit-odede-radadele | language=et | access-date=2020-06-17}}</ref><ref name="Estonian World Review 2004">{{cite web | title=Karin Luts jõudis koju tagasi | website=Estonian World Review | date=2004-10-15 | url=https://www.eesti.ca/karin-luts-joudis-koju-tagasi/article8141 | language=et | access-date=2020-06-17}}</ref><ref name="AWARE Women artists">{{cite web | title=Karin Luts | website=AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes | date=2018-03-18 | url=https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/karin-luts/ | access-date=2020-06-17}}</ref><ref name="teosed E-kunstisalongis">{{cite web | title=Karin Luts | website=teosed E-kunstisalongis | url=https://www.e-kunstisalong.ee/Karin_Luts_1346 | language=et | access-date=2020-06-17}}</ref><ref name="Tartmus 2017">{{cite web | title=Karin Luts. Konfliktid ja pihtimused | website=Tartmus | date=2017-07-06 | url=https://tartmus.ee/naitus/karin-luts-konfliktid-ja-pihtimused/ | language=et | access-date=2020-06-17}}</ref><ref name="Karin Luts">{{cite web | title=Karin Luts: an artist and her time. | website=Karin Luts: an artist and her time. | date=2008-12-19 | url=https://core.ac.uk/reader/1154506 | access-date=2020-06-17}}</ref><ref name="Eesti Entsüklopeedia">{{cite web | title=Luts, Karin | website=Eesti Entsüklopeedia | url=http://entsyklopeedia.ee/artikkel/luts_karin3 | language=et | access-date=2020-06-17}}</ref>
Luts worked as a costume designer and illustrator. One of her works was the illustrations for {{Interlanguage link|Eduard Visnapuu|et}}'s children's book ''Loomade talu'' in 1933. She began to work with textile designs in 1935. The Ministry of Economy commissioned her to complete a tapestry design to be displayed in the Estonia pavilion of the Paris World's Fair in 1937. The work won a gold medal. She traveled to Finland and Denmark with Andrus Johani before she published her first article. Luts article was a critic of an exhibition of Italian women artists held in Tallinn in 1937. By 1939 Luts was part of the group of artists known as Pallas.<ref name="Torn"/><ref name="Karin Luts"/><ref name="Eesti Entsüklopeedia"/>
In 1939 Luts traveled through Rome with the Tallinn Women's Club where she took the opportunity to work in the studio of the artist Countess Mola. She had planned to return to Rome but the outbreak of the Second World War prevented it. She began working for the Konrad Mägi College of Art in 1940 as a lecturer. She married fellow professor Peter Arumaa and in 1944 they fled the soviet occupation of Estonia and went to Sweden. They both became citizens in the 1950s.<ref name="Estonian World Review 2004"/><ref name="AWARE Women artists"/><ref name="Tartmus 2017"/><ref name="Karin Luts"/><ref name="Eesti Entsüklopeedia"/>
In Sweden Luts took up graphic design and gained recognition in painting and graphics internationally though she died relatively unknown having left Estonia as one of her best known women artists. She studied graphics from 1960 to 1968 in Stockholm and went on to study in Salzburg. She died in Stockholm in 1993. She left her art to the Tartu Art Museum and her writings to the Estonian Literary Museum.<ref name="Estonian World Review 2004"/><ref name="AWARE Women artists"/><ref name="teosed E-kunstisalongis"/><ref name="Tartmus 2017"/><ref name="Karin Luts"/><ref name="Eesti Entsüklopeedia"/><ref name="Taylor 2014 p. 43">{{cite book | last=Taylor | first=N. | title=Estonia | publisher=Bradt Travel Guides | series=Bradt Travel Guide Estonia | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-84162-487-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ibfxAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 | language=es | access-date=2020-06-17 | page=43}}</ref>
Luts was married to linguist Peeter Arumaa. Her sister was the actress Meta Luts and her cousin was artist Julius Gentalen.<ref name="Zirin Livezeanu Worobec Farris 2015">{{cite book | last1=Zirin | first1=M. | last2=Livezeanu | first2=I. | last3=Worobec | first3=C.D. | last4=Farris | first4=J.P. | title=Women and Gender in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia: A Comprehensive Bibliography Volume I: Southeastern and East Central Europe (Edited by Irina Livezeanu with June Pachuta Farris) Volume II: Russia, the Non-Russian Peoples of the Russian | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2015 | isbn=978-1-317-45196-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G2isBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT2880 | access-date=2020-06-17 | page=2880}}</ref><ref name="Eesti Entsüklopeedia"/>
== Works == <gallery> Karin Luts "Kompositsioon. Õnnesaar", 1927. Tartmus.jpg|''Kompositsioon. Õnnesaar'', 1927 Karin Luts "Aednik", 1928. Tartmus.tif|''Aednik'', 1928 Karin Luts "Süüta laste tapmine", 1928. Tartmus.tif|''Süüta laste tapmine'', 1928 File:Karin Luts "Vähjasööming", 1933. Tartmus.tif|''Vähjasööming'', 1933 Karin Luts "Leerilapsed", 1936. Tartmus.tif|''Leerilapsed'', 1936thumbSelf-portrait, 1939 Karin Luts "Kaluritüdruk rannal", 1943. Tartmus.tif|''Kaluritüdruk rannal'', 1943 Karin Luts Autoportree,1943. Tartmus.jpg|''Self-portrait'', 1943 </gallery>
== References == {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Luts, Karin}} Category:1904 births Category:1993 deaths Category:Estonian printmakers Category:Estonian graphic artists Category:20th-century Estonian painters Category:Estonian World War II refugees Category:Estonian emigrants to Sweden Category:People from Tõrva Parish Category:20th-century Estonian women painters