Everyone who has entered Merivälja Südamekodu has surely noticed the magnificent fresco in the foyer — a work whose story had remained unknown until now. The fresco was completed exactly 50 years ago, and only this autumn did artist Rober Suvi have the chance to see that his youthful creation has survived and is still in good condition. 

“For a long time, we only knew that the fresco had been created in the 1970s as the graduation project of a student from the Academy of Arts, then called the Institute of Art. Now, decades later, we began searching and finally managed to discover its author — the artist Rober Suvi. We also learned that the work was completed in 1975, and even more wonderfully, we found the artist himself, who was delighted to come, see his creation, and tell us more about it,” said Ene Katkosilt, head of Merivälja Südamekodu.

This autumn, Robert Suvi visited Merivälja Südamekodu to see his youthful artwork. It was a moving reunion, as the artist had believed until now that the fresco was lost.

“On October 14, it was exactly 50 years since the work was completed, so half a century later I met the piece again. It gives me great joy to see that the fresco is truly in good condition and has been well cared for. There are only a few small chips and some paint has worn off, but certainly 99% of the work has been preserved. Maybe it will be possible to get some students involved in fixing the mistakes — for example, some holes have been filled with cement, which of course shouldn’t be done. But that can be removed and replaced with the correct plaster. All these small defects can be restored,” said artist Robert Suvi.

The title of the work is "Peace" and it depicts a woman with two children. "Peace is also a very topical issue. At the time I was painting, there was an institution here called the personal pensioners' retirement home. I also remember a funny story: one of the residents at the time, a well-known lady, often came to see the work in progress and once asked me if I thought the dove was too fat and how it would be able to fly. I didn't listen to her," recalls Robert Suvi.

Robert Suvi says that when the Merivälja retirement home was completed and the first residents had already moved in, a competition was announced for students of the Academy of Arts to create a fireplace painting. A fresco technique was chosen. "Frescoes generally preserve very well – it is one of the oldest techniques and, if not treated barbarically, a fresco can last for thousands of years," explains Suvi, adding that when painting on wet plaster, the colors are initially like watercolors, but they are covered four or five times. And when the plaster begins to harden, the paint gets between the grains of sand and seeps into the wall along with the plaster. "Nothing can remove it after that!"

"I was lucky with the plasterers – I didn't do the plastering myself, it was done by specialists. But for a fresco, the plaster has to be perfect, no thicker than 1 cm, and ideally 0.5 cm. The thicker the plaster, the more it cracks. The thinner it is, the less it cracks. But as you can see, there are no cracks in this work," the artist rejoices.

Creating a fresco is quite time-consuming. "Plastering, covering several times – in the fresco style, it is only possible to work up to half a square meter per day. The plaster dries on the same day, and if you mess something up, it's usually too late. You can't fix it or do anything about it the next day," the artist added.