|
|
| HISTORY OF LATVIAN ART SALONS – THE OPENING PAGES 1909–1911 Kristiāna Ābele While looking for some detailed information for a book on artist Pēteris Krastiņš, I stumbled upon some confusion regarding the first Latvian art salons in Riga around 1910. In various publications the circumstances of their foundation and activities were described inaccurately and inexactly; however, recently some facts have come to light which allow for a more clear definition of the role of the new salons in the cultural environment of Riga, and afford a look at the faces and fates of their creators. | |
| |
| We pick up the story at the Advent season of 1909, when Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš first inquired who was to blame that "Riga, which, in cultural matters, is one of the best cities in Russia, is like an orphan where the art of painting is concerned" and that most Latvian painters still lived in Petersburg. He came to the conclusion that, "above all things, an art salon is needed, where painters could present their works", and ended his musings with the announcement that such a salon - small but handsome - would in the coming days be opened by photographer Jānis Rieksts at 17 Aleksandra Street. The two-storey wood-clad building at what is now 41 Brīvības Street has been renovated, although admittedly not in its best incarnation; but in those days, when the top floor of the house had just been rented out to Mr Rieksts' "establishment of photographical art", Jūlijs Madernieks - shortly before Jaunsudrabiņš - noted in his reportage that besides studio premises the building also held a larger hall with some adjoining rooms, destined for exhibitions. "To this venture by photographer J. Rieksts," he wrote, "we can extend our warmest affinities and congratulations. This can now come to be a serious tool for art promotion, which grows yet more significant if we consider the negative response to the request of Latvian artists for a painting exhibition on the city museum premises next summer." In January 1910 Rieksts set up an exposition featuring Baltic artists of different generations, nationalities and stature - Janis Rozentāls and Vilhelms Purvītis, Theodor Kraus and Gerhard von Rosen, Bernhard Borchert and Eva Margarethe Borchert-Schweinfurt, Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš, Lucie von Miram, Ivan Tikhomirov, Rūdolfs Vilciņš and the late Voldemārs Zeltiņš. Ceramic pieces by Pēteris Šteinbergs and tapestries by Hildur EtolÈn were also on offer. In visitor's testimonials praise alternated with reproaches for the absence of heretofore unseen works, overcluttering, the fading of the brightest talents into Baltic greyness, and other real or imaginary sins. With the arrival of spring newspaper articles hinted at a discernible connection between the activities of Rieksts' private venture and the lack of success the Riga Art Society (Rigaer Kunstverein) - another, favoured public organisation with accommodation in the building of the city museum - had had in its exhibition policies and attempts at local artist involvement. The real picture was, of course, not as black and white as some contemporaries considered it to be, but the question why the newest Baltic art could be viewed not at the presentable temple of the muses but at the considerably less splendid abode of the enterprising photographer was perhaps quite valid. The process of Riga emerging into a 20th century culture metropolis was wrought with such inner tensions that some observers were even fearful of Rieksts' entrepreneurial activities serving as a divisive factor and influencing the Rigans' sense of direction - what if people got confused and, unable to choose between two art establishments, decided not to attend either? Rieksts' next project as salon proprietor was to organise an exhibition of studies by Voldemārs Zeltiņš, who had passed away the preceding autumn. The exhibition opened on 4 April, 1910 (Old Style), and was extended by several weeks past its intended month. "The exhibition exudes a feeling of freedom and delight. A protest against old routine, so to speak. Glittering pearls, freely scattered," was the verdict of Pāvils Gruzna. Elsewhere in the press there were wishes for success in Rieksts' plans to show Rigans the legacy of Ādams Alksnis. This intent never came to fruition; neither did another idea - the May 1925 issue of Ilustrētais Žurnāls (The Illustrated Journal) featured a cover drawing by Rihards Zariņš, reading "Latvian Art. Volume I. 1909. Published by J. Rieksts in Riga"; in his review of the third edition of "The Baltic Art Yearbook" (Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst in den Ostseeprovinzen) in spring 1910 Janis Rozentāls expressed his doubts whether "such Latvian publication as intended by Mr Rieksts for the festive days of this year will become an event of more than one occasion". By "festive days" he meant the 200th anniversary of incorporation of Vidzeme into the Russian Empire, but we have no Latvian art yearbook at our disposal and the materials which the photographer intended for it probably perished in fire with the rest of his archives during the Second World War. In July, Rieksts' salon hosted an exhibition of works by the students of the drawing and painting school of the Riga Sign-Painters' Society, and in November the single year of the establishment's activities was concluded by Ansis Cīrulis' ceramics exhibition with free admission - with the hope that so-called art pottery would improve the financial situation. However, almost directly after this event came the announcement that "Mr Rieksts' art salon, which was greeted with great approval by lovers of painting, has closed down due to lack of attendance of the viewing public." The additional expenses for salon maintenance were too great, and Rieksts dropped his side venture. Unfortunately, as the archives were lost there is little real evidence of this episode - lamentably little for a man of his occupation, longevity and interests. The saddened art enthusiasts of Riga turned hopefully to the building of the Ķeniņš School at 15/17 Tērbatas Street: in December 1910 had come the announcement that the art section of Pēteris Saulītis' book and art store, housed at this address, had been extended into a salon, which was later named the Saulit-Melder Latvian Art Salon. That year the building had already hosted an exhibition of Lithuanian art over the Easter holidays and a Youth Association exhibition in the summer. Around Easter of 1911, when Saulītis' store belatedly published the 8th issue for 1910 of Zalktis magazine, the salon was advertising works by Arturs Bērnieks, Krišjānis Ceplītis, Ansis Cīrulis, Burkards Dzenis, Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš, Pēteris Kalve, a Krastiņš (probably Jūlijs Krastiņš), Jānis Kuga, Janis Rozentāls, Pēteris Šteinbergs, Aleksandrs Štrāls, Arnolds Tigins, Leontīne Zēbauere, Janis Zegners and Voldemārs Zeltiņš. In April news of the salon in the press concerned mostly the work of Pēteris Krastiņš, who had recently returned from abroad. Soon his work was showcased in a special exhibition, which acquired the reputation of a grand event in art, provoking fears whether any of the artist's colleagues would have the courage to fill the salon space after him. "He has landed suddenly in front of us, like a firebird from a fairy tale," gushed Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš, "and we yearn to grab it and cling on to it, so as to be left with at least a golden feather, should the bird flee." Not counting minor notices, the exhibition was featured in more than ten articles, but in harsh contrast to the lavish praise of reviews the event was poorly attended and only two smaller pieces were sold. The extensive descriptions and reproductions in the Domas magazine of the following year, as well as the salon proprietor's ownership of several of the paintings - as evidenced by sources from the 1920s - allows us to have a better idea of this particular exhibition than of any other art event hosted by the two salons. It laid the groundwork for the reputation of Krastiņš' art, and without this exhibition the Latvian Art Promotion Society probably wouldn't in the following years have realised the necessity for rounding up the fragile legacy of the artist, who was by then already gravely ill. During the Krastiņš exhibition the newspaper readership was informed that the Saulit-Melder salon had published postcards of Latvian art with reproductions of paintings, pieces of sculpture and ceramics, and pictures of the interior of the salon itself. To date, two examples of modern printed postcards postmarked 1911 have been found, and it is hoped we might yet one day see some of the advertised interior views. Newspapers mention the salon's activities from late 1910 to late 1911, disclosing that the daring step of following Krastiņš' exhibition with his own was taken by young Atis Maizītis, whose trail soon disappeared into Russia. In the autumn another mixed exhibition of work by various artists was held, showcasing Cīrulis' and Šteinbergs' newest offerings in the ceramics section and Burkards Dzenis' copper brooches (saktas) in sculpture. Still, it is unlikely the salon survived till 1913, as suggested by Jānis Dombrovskis in the book "Latvian Art" (Latvju māksla, 1925). Photographer Jānis Rieksts is a personality well-known in Latvian culture history, whereas the "art salon proprietor P. Saulīte-Melderis" mentioned in several publications of the 1970s and 1980s happens to be just a fabrication born from a researchers' error, and should be replaced with another person's name. Many will have seen one of the photographs of Krišjānis Barons among the inhabitants and guests of the Burtnieku nams boarding house in 1911. In the list of people in the photograph, copied from publication to publication, some uncertainty remains regarding the young man standing on the porch right behind Pāvils Gruzna in a light-coloured suit, and next to the slight frame of Jānis Zālītis. One article names him as Jānis Medenis, while another calls him J. Melderis without mentioning a given name. However, the most reliable source has to be the annotation of the picture published in one of the March 1926 issues of the Nedēļa (The Week) magazine, because this person was none other than the publisher and editor-in-chief of this magazine - Jānis Melderis. His death in a car race a few months later prompted a closer look at an eventful life. Facts of Melderis' life and his most important work of the 1920s are listed in a directory of Latvian periodicals, but he should also take up his place in art history as the true founder of the art salon at the building of the Ķeniņš School. The Riga address directories list Pēteris Saulītis as the tenant of 15/17 Tērbatas Street for 1908; in the following years his place is taken by Rozālija Saulīte. Thus we may conclude that this bookseller, whose surname remained in the name of the company, must have passed away around this time. Some time later, a Jānis Melderis, born in 1890 near Rūjiena and alumnus of P‰rnu Realschule, settled in the capital, where he played small parts at the New Riga Theatre. He took up work at the Saulītis bookstore, married the widow of the former proprietor and extended the field of activities of the business inherited by his wife by coming up with the idea of an art gallery. The young man started up a debate on matters of art with Jānis Dombrovskis and signed his "opinions from the public" as "Jānis Melderis, art salon proprietor". He is most certainly also the author of some press articles on salon news, signed with some variation of the cryptonym -m- or, in some cases, both his initials. In 1911 Rozālija and Jānis mostly used a combination of both surnames in the name of their company, also keeping the initial of Mr Saulītis' given name, and this combination has probably been the source of the confusion over the years. In the address directory for 1912 Rozālija Saulīte is replaced by Rozālija Saulīte-Meldere, book and stationery supply store proprietor; and the 1913 edition lists neither Rozālija nor a suitable Jānis Melderis, which begs the conclusion that the couple, like the Ķeniņš, had left Riga for a while due to the selling of the school building on Tērbatas Street - or, that the family had been shattered by the untimely death of Rozālija, which is mentioned in Melderis' biographies without a specific date. In 1914-1918 Melderis worked in the town of Valka as the administrator of the Līdums newspaper and took part in the founding of some chapters of the Farmers' Union. During the War of Liberation he enlisted in the Latvian army and served as aide to the commandant of Riga. In 1920 Melderis, along with Alfrēds Purics, started up the Ilustrētais Žurnāls magazine, and the rest of his life was devoted mostly to publishing periodicals, taking over the Nedēļa magazine in 1923. To the 1919 Latvian retrospective art exhibition Melderis contributed four works by Pēteris Krastiņš and a study from the graduation work of Aleksandrs Romans. In 1925 several of these treasures and another painting by Voldemārs Zeltiņš, all listed as property of Melderis, appeared in some Ilustrētais Žurnāls articles on these artists. In the final months of his life some of these works of art were purchased by the Latvian State Museum of Art, but as late as during the summers of the Second World War Jānis Krēsliņš (the Elder) admired some paintings by Pēteris Krastiņš while visiting his mother's cousins, who were Melderis' sisters. The further fate of these paintings is unknown. When Melderis died his colleagues outlined the most distinctive traits of his character in the obituaries: "He knew no fear or level-headed calculation in the work he had grown to love. There were many gestures in his life and activities, much impulse and aspiration to break out onto a wider path. But then came disregard of reality and - inevitable retreat. And then, in a short while, even a moment, Jānis Melderis found a new solution again, and pursued it with rare dedication." It seems this disregard of reality was an important prerequisite without which one couldn't approach the creation of an art salon in those days; but there was also a ring of truth about Rozentāls' musings from 1910 on the fragile seedling of art, and his reminder that "we have been repeatedly taught this lesson by the short lifespan of all our artistic endeavours and magazines." As the popularity of the visual arts among affluent city dwellers of the early 20th century was lagging considerably behind the prosperity of Riga in other areas, the first salons one after another suffered commercial fiasco. But the economically precipitate business activities were very timely diversifiers of the local artistic life. During these years art acquired a few more publicly accessible "places of accommodation" besides the city museum and some schoolhouses that sometimes lent their premises to exhibitions over the school holidays, and this additional supply aided the perception of the contemporary processes in art. The ascertainment of Jānis Melderis' personality would have been further delayed if Jānis Krēsliņš (the Elder) had not lingered in his memories of the art of those days as he read "The Fine Arts in Latvia under Nazi German Occupation: 1941-1945" (2005), a monograph by Jānis Kalnačs. Any insight into this subject would not be complete without materials from Pēteris Korsaks' photographic archives and Laimonis Osis' collection. You can learn more on the first Latvian art salons and their owners as the series "Materials for Latvian Art History" continues with the compilation "City. Age. Environment", due for publication in 2007. | |
| go back | |
