Vive Tolli

Exhibitions and reception Tolli held numerous solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions internationally, including in Finland and Denmark, as recorded in Estonian art reference databases and museum collection portals.

In 2018 Estonia’s public broadcaster ERR covered her 90th birthday exhibition at the National Library, reflecting sustained public and institutional attention to her long career. The Estonian Printmakers’ Association also announced related jubilee programming in 2018.

Honours and awards Tolli received major recognition in both the Soviet-era Estonian SSR system and in post-independence Estonia. She was named Honoured Artist of the Estonian SSR (1965) and People’s Artist of the Estonian SSR (1978).

She received the Kristjan Raud Art Award in 1978 (listed among that year’s recipients). In 1998 she won the main prize of the Eduard Wiiralt Art Award (Wiiralti preemia).

Institutional biographies also note that she received the Order of the White Star, 3rd Class (2001). In 2008 she received a lifetime-achievement honour from the Estonian National Culture Foundation.

Selected works Merilehmad (Sea cows), 1963 (etching) Kivine linn (Stone city), 1965 (Tallinn Old Town theme) Vaade kirjamehe aknast (View from a writer’s window), 1974 (dedicated to Jaan Kross) To Inge, 1997 (etching; silk-screen printing)

Personal life In 1952 she married sculptor Lembit Tolli; their daughter Tuulikki Tolli became a scenographer.