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 Illuminated by the Stars in the Sky Jānis Borgs, Art Critic | |
| If he’d been a sportsman, then this champion’s face would most likely already be staring from some Latvian postage stamp. But designers don’t usually end up on stamps, despite even truly Olympic achievements. We only have one of his kind – Andrejs Legzdiņš (born 1936). We say so now – we, although due to his torically unjust circumstances his great works were created mainly under the flag of Sweden, his country of exile. But still we can be proud, because he came from Latvia and has returned to Latvia. He is a man who with his outstanding creativity in the field of design gained significant international attention and recognition, the only Latvian who has been featured in the world’s leading architecture and design magazine Domus six times (1972–1983). And preferred there by Gio Ponti, the editor himself, even more so as a Latvian (as Ponti knew already from other successful collaborations with our countrymen) than for mally as a Swede. In Andrejs Legzdiņš’ example we can see yet again the enormous significance a benevolent cultural environment has on the development of a personality. For him it was particularly outstanding. As the grandson of Kārlis Skalbe, both in the pros perity of prewar Latvia as well as later in Sweden (where he ended up as a refugee together with his parents and his famous grandfather) he always found himself among the sort of people whom we consider to be our Golden Treasury of intellectualism: Konstantīns Čakste, Niklāvs Strunke, Mārtiņš Zīverts, Teodors Reiters, Veronika Strēlerte, Andrejs Johansons, Arveds Švābe... Plus in addition a sound Swedish Konstfack education, the uni versity college to which Legzdiņš later returned as professor of design. And a life in which his personality thrived, not just within his profession, but also in many other facets, like those of a cut diamond: an accomplished cook, jazz musician, craftsman, caring family man... In essence – a real artist of Life. The master has now collected his life and design activity experiences in a 216 page book, mani darbi un nedarbi (‘My Deeds and Misdeeds’), which came out at the end of 2012 and was published by Neputns, the publishing house so “warmly” associated with our arts. You cannot but notice the individual ity of this book, as this volume immediately stands out from its more traditional “neighbours” on shop counters and shelves by its unusual elegance and clear, logically designed format. This unequivocally confirms that it belongs to the noble Domus family and style. Like a classic prototype, we can already recognize it from the image on the cover, with its silvery grey tones and the consistent use of lower case letters in its title. The book’s entire internal arrangement and layout, too, is reminiscent of Domus, which for Andrejs Legzdiņš is like belonging to some kind of chivalric order of European design. And even a documentary resume of his life in book form, such as this, the professor has been able to transform into an exemplary textbook of design, even though he has always worked with objects, interiors and architecture, and has been fairly removed from graphic design activities. It is, in fact, a thick picture book of design, in which the proportion of simple and sincere text against the impressive number of pictures is quite small. The author himself has ex plained that he has given priority to the presentation of his thoughts in visual form because of a rare disability he has – dyslexia, namely, a disorder that impairs spelling and writing ability which can also affect people of high intelligence, for ex ample Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Steven Spielberg... In Legzdiņš’ squareshaped book, the upper two thirds of each page are taken up by large pictures. The explanations of the most concisely essential things then wend their way through its entire “mass”, like the axis of a telegraph ribbon. And finally, the bottom quarter of the page is filled with a more detailed textual and visual commentary. This type of module has allowed the author to achieve an unusually intensive density of information which could never be achieved with more extensive tracts of text. But a real concentration or “vitamin bomb” of design has been achieved here. In the book, the personal and the biographical are won derfully interwoven with chronologically ordered professional revelations from the master’s countless design and architecture works, these being supplemented with theoretically scientific extras. The hightech aesthetic cultivated by Andrejs Legzdiņš is often imputed to be a rational coolness. And sometimes, look ing at it in fragmentary fashion, it could even seem to be so. However, it is specifically in his design activities (and also in the whole image of the book) that a unique emotional combina tion can be found – as if cool technicism has interlaced with an entirely Skalbelike warmth of the heart which promotes posi tive feelings almost to the verge of tears, just like nearly every Latvian has experienced and tried to suppress some time, for example, after reading Kaķīša dzirnavas (‘Kitty’s Watermill’). It is also the presence of nature and the inspiration for construc tive ideas gained there which imparts a deeply poetic dimension to Legzdiņš’ rationalism, a dimension we tend to accredit as a positive characteristic in our nation’s people. That part of the book which shows the master’s activities in contemporary Latvia also leads to more subdued reflections about the obscurantism which still prevails in our midst. Andrejs Legzdiņš has done a range of interiors for bars, clubs and res taurants in Rīga. Instead of marking these with a marble plaque and proudly preserving the achievements of a living classic, they have been rashly destroyed in favour of jackallike inter ests of the “market economy”. Some kind of “end of the world” must be approaching, when we will be painting over the fres coes by Purvītis on the façade of the Latvian Society Building with advertisements for some sausage eatery, oil company or sex club. Legzdiņš’ book, titled with typically Latvian modesty ‘My Deeds and Misdeeds’, reveals to us the heroic achievement of an outstandingly active, creative and productive spirit. In real ity we have experienced Latvia’s all time best publication in the field of design. And like it happens in sport, records can stay in place for many decades. It seems to me that we won’t see anything equal to Legzdiņš’ achievement here for a long time yet. The master mentions one of his tenets: do more with less. This fundamental formula he took from his great inspiration, the American designer, engineer, theorist, architect, futurist “Bucky” or Buckminster Fuller: more and more with less and ess until eventually you can do everything with nothing. And this led Andrejs Legzdiņš to the heights of fame which so long ago Kārlis Skalbe had already presciently predicted, dedicating the poem Jaunās egles (‘Young Firs’) to his beloved grandson: Great winds blowing over the hill Will lead you into the world. With that greatness in your soul, You’ll read from the stars in the sky. Translator into English: Uldis Brūns | |
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