|
|
| Art for All or Guidebooks for the People Stella Pelše, Art Historian The series "STUDIO library" | |
| In 2008 the publishing house "Neputns" launched a new series of small-format publications "STUDIO library". The first four books have been published (the catchy series' logo and the userfriendly design must be noted), providing compact and compelling portraits of select Latvian artists or art phenomena. The target audience is both local readers, as well as foreign readers, for whom the English translation of a concentrated story provides an insight into those aspects of local artistic life which may not have been fully appreciated, or are to be regarded as exemplary, and therefore need to be popularized. The materials include interviews with artists or "collages" of their statements and, where appropriate, relevant period documents. The reviews by art critics and researchers vary from caution (Kristiāna Ābele: "If a book can be read during a tram ride, then there is a certain feeling of insufficiency") to acknowledgment that the book is appropriate to the target audience (Anita Vanaga: "It is not meant for us, professionals, it's for the people"). The question arises, whether this review should have been written by someone who represents the "people", who would be better placed to evaluate if the authors and publishers have managed to educate and generate interest. It may be difficult for professionals to distance themselves from seeking various "deficiencies", nevertheless, I will give it a try. Chronologically, the first edition is "The Mythology of Sovietland" by Elita Ansone, art historian at the Latvian National Museum of Art. The book gives an insight into the theory and practice of Socialist Realism, and may be considered in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title held in 2008. A brief introduction into political history, with an emphasis on the amorphous character of Socialist Realism and its evolution in time, is followed by a more detailed description of Soviet myths (about the leader, revolutionary history, the Great Patriotic War (WWII), the party, the new citizen, etc.). It can be very amusing to browse through the list of recommended themes for artists as drawn up by the Communist Party in 1941 (the list can now be found in the State Archives of Latvia) and to read other authentic documents. Here is an example of a suggested theme - "Lenin in Razliv": "The locomotive has been detached from the train and has pulled over to a water reservoir. Dressed as a stoker, Lenin is standing next to the locomotive. The train is being searched by spies and younkers. Station "Belostrova". July. 1917." (p. 25). Reading Normunds Naumanis' conclusion that the book "fails to untwist the vivid tangle of contradictions that characterize the Soviet era and Soviet art", possibly due to lack of journalistic prowess (Naumanis. Archiving Art for the People. Kultūras Diena, November 21, 2008), one could think that Ansone's narrative is dryly academic - however, I would tend to disagree. The book is easy to read and rich in information, leaving the job of untwisting the tangle for a more substantial monographic edition. Such an edition could also deal with the contentious issue of discerning "Realism from Social Realism" (p. 45) which can lead to endless explanations of the proportions between conviction and conjuncture. The next book - a double portrait of the artists "Juris Baklāns & Vija Maldupe" - is written by the formerly active art critic Pēteris Bankovskis. Already in the introduction the author states his intention to shelter the heritage of both painters from the fate of being placed among anachronistic background events: "The works of Vija Maldupe and Juris Baklāns, due to their expressions of compositional and coloristic effects and content specifics, in the opinion of their contemporaries (...) were like keystones that hold together a complex piece of construction - an arch, for example. Their painting exudes the pictorial liberation of their teachers' generation - people of the "Soviet thaw" - and holds a premonition of the following generation's manifold ways of playing with painting as a medium" (p. 5). A biographical outline is followed by an extensive collage of quotes: art critics' opinions, the author himself commenting and sometimes challenging the statements, adding personal conclusions and comparisons with, for example, the English painters Richard Parks and Stanley Spencer (these might not mean a lot to newcomers, but mean a great deal to specialists). However, there are few conclusions about the artists (apart for calling them a "bridge" across generations), and there are no substantial statements about the originality and value of their art, although the artists did not have any such conclusions themselves: "(..) I have thought about it - is there anything that is completely my own? Everything exists as a continuation. And some thing that I start is a continuation of something else" (Vija Maldupe, p. 65). On the other hand, the book by art historian Raivis Austriņš "Supergraphic Artists" introduces a radical period of change, which so far has been represented in the exhibition "Trespassers. Contemporary Art of the 1980s" (Riga: The Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, 2005). Austriņš' narrative is constructive and thorough. He describes the specifics of screen printing and the history of large format screen prints (ironically, they were commissioned by Moscow officials, who ensured that the new artists had premises and materials to create these rather critical works saturated with expressive protest). Then the author goes on to characterize each artist and their creative work (images, expressiveness of form) Ojārs Pētersons, Kristaps Ģelzis, Juris Putrāms, Andris Breže and Indulis Gailāns, also including LPSR-Z, a group of artists who entered the art scene at the end of the 1980s as social activists. A more comprehensive analysis of the supergraphics, placing these works into an international context, would also call for comparisons not only with the German "Young Savages". However, the objective is not to provoke a thorough scientific discourse, but to emphasize the key aspects of this historically bound phenomenon: "Supergraphics - possibly they were a form of protest against the political system that we lived in. The system collapsed, and it was the end of the supergraphics, too" (Normunds Lācis, p. 31). | |
 Jānis Taurens. Gints Gabrāns: Rīga, Neputns, 2008., p.104, il. | |
| Finally, a book by the architect and philosopher, Jānis Taurens. "Gints Gabrāns" offers a contemporary version of the Giorgio Vasari "Lives of the Artists" tradition: creative biography as a compelling narrative, including stories of pranks (the flippancy of childhood and youth), as well as squabbles with the Soviet educational system and disagreement with the traditional views on "correct" art at the Latvian Academy of Art. Starting with versatile realistic drawings of medieval knights at the age 13, the progress of the artist is followed from the aggressively provocative installations to the esoteric games between the boundaries of science and mysticism. Although lacking broader comparisons to conceptual art in an international perspective, the narrative serves as a persuasive encouragement for approaching contemporary art without any special background knowledge. Namely, trust your feelings and impulses - art is not a puzzle that is meant for the select few, neither is it a boring illustration of the concepts of social-political conjuncture. Art is an adventure that is possible to experience on various levels and aspects. If we quote Gabrāns: "I am not aware of everything that is present in my works, they are created intuitively - even though they are based on mathematically calculated proportions and integrated systems of physics and mysticism, etc. But even such calculations can be associated with play and intuition" (p. 43). /Translator into English: Anita Načisčione/ | |
| go back | |
