Lepo Mikko

Lepo Mikko (legal name Lepo Mikk; December 7, 1911 – December 6, 1978) was an Estonian painter and teacher.

Early life and education Lepo Mikko was born Leonid Mikk in Aruküla, a former village in Viljandi County in the Russian Empire's Governorate of Livonia, the son of the farmer Jaak Mikk (1876–?) and Anna Mikk (née Järv, 1880–?). He graduated from Tuhalaane Primary School in 1927. Inspired by Juhan Muks,

By the early 1950s, the artist became interested in monumental painting. The ceramic wall panel of the Central Library of the Estonian Academy of Sciences was created from numerous pieces. Mikko's design was judged to be the best in the competition held in 1961 and, after two years of work, a cardboard drawing of the panel (3.0 m × 4.5 m) was completed, which was then executed in ceramic at the artist's request. The panel depicts family, education, and science through large symbolic figures. In the middle of the composition, a boy is holding a book. The panel was made by the ceramists Naima Uustalu and Mall Valk.

The year 1960 marked the beginning of an exceptionally intense and stylistically variegated period of work for Mikko. Starting in the mid-1960s, the artist preferred to express himself in multi-part figurative compositions. He cultivated all genres of painting, mostly figure composition and still lifes. In the second half of the 1960s, he received several commissions, the themes of which were related to the conquest of space at that time.

Awards and recognitions 1963: 1972: People's Artist of the Estonian SSR 1972: for the paintings Aegade laulud (Songs of the Ages), Ajaratas (The Wheel of Time), and Inimene ja kosmos (Man and Space) 1976: Kristjan Raud Art Award for the paintings Elujuured (Roots of Life) and Kivine maa (Rocky Land) (oil)