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| WILHELM TIMM – MASTER DRAUGHTSMAN AND CERAMICIST Ksenija Rudzīte | |
| The exhibition "Projects and Objects. Majolica by Wilhelm Timm", which will run at the White Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art from 1 February to 9 March 2008, is an introduction to a little-known aspect of the creative work of Wilhelm Timm, prominent 19th-Century painter and draughtsman. For the very first time the public will be able to view a large collection of the artist's sketches for decorative crockery and the items created from these designs, assembled from the collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art and the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation. Wilhelm Timm's heritage is of considerable significance in the context of the cultural history of Latvia, Russia and Germany. The distinguished son of a Baltic dynasty was born in Riga but spent most of his life in Russia, where he graduated from St Petersburg Academy of Art, made his debut as an illustrator and became one of the most prominent draughtsmen of his time. Despite being extremely busy he returned to Latvia on a regular basis to stay with his family and rest from the stress and rush of St Petersburg. While back at his birthplace, the artist often painted Riga and the vicinities of smaller Latvian towns with a great depth of feeling, and took part in exhibitions organised by local artists. After Wilhelm Timm's death in 1895 his remains were transported back to his native country. Timm's widow Emilie Nicholina Pfaab presented two Riga museums with the artist's own works and his art collection. The Latvian National Museum of Art houses a significant collection of the artist's paintings and graphic works, which the public have been able to view in several commemorative exhibitions. However, only a very narrow professional circle is aware of Wilhelm Timm's creative activities in Germany, where the artist worked at the design studio of the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin. This particular aspect of his work brought the artist fame and recognition in Germany, where he was awarded the honorary title of professor by the Prussian Academy of Art and now occupies a prominent place in the history of German ceramic art of the latter half of the 19th Century. The exhibition aims not just to provide a look at this part of the talented artist's heritage and his creative processes - the way a particular sketch or design is turned into an object of decorative art - but also to offer an insight into Historicism, a very interesting stylistic trend in 19th-Century Europe, particularly vividly manifested in decorative and applied arts. Although Wilhelm Timm was certainly not alone in his passion for majolica and other traditional techniques of decorative applied arts, it should be noted that he turned to this branch of art rather late in his creative life. With astonishing enthusiasm, however, the artist was able to master the technology and create works of art that in their artistic qualities are on par with any work produced by his contemporaries. The collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art and the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation hold some 80 sketches, studies and designs for decorative plates, panels, vases and other vessels, and 55 different ceramic objects - assorted works that, except for a few pieces, has never been displayed together as an oeuvre. In these works the artist is revealed as a typical master of Historicism of the 1870s and 1880s. In compliance with the demands of his time, and akin to other artists like, for instance, the great French ceramicist ThÈodore Deck, Wilhelm Timm used motifs from folklore and historical subject matter, creating compositions that were based on the characteristic elements of decoration and compositional structure that were widely used and popular in the 19th Century. The exhibition presents a wide array of decorative crockery, mostly intended for use in interior design. The collection includes vases decorated in the ornamental style of 16th-Century Italian Maiolica as well as imitations and copies of mediaeval stained glass and mosaics. There are plates and vases with pictures of ladies in ornate dresses, knights, pastoral scenes; beer steins with scenes of hunting and feasting, adorned with witty, instructive or peppery inscriptions. The artist often borrowed subject matter and motifs from his graphic works and paintings, produced during his stay in Russia and trip to Algiers. These are realistic genre studies of images from the lives of Russian farmers, Italian fishermen and travelling Jewish musicians. These scenes are often idealised, and the same can be said of the images of women of different eras that are featured in his ceramic designs. The sketches and designs offer an insight into several steps of the artist's work on composition as he masters the shape which determines the placement of images and ornamentation. The decorative objects created by Wilhelm Timm at Berlin Imperial Porcelain Manufactory were highly prized at the time - the artist continuously received new commissions and his works were purchased by museums and private collectors. Dr Lessing, the artist's contemporary and direc-tor of the Imperial Museum of Decorative Arts, maintained that Wilhelm Timm's "work and influence [was] worthy of particular recognition, as he was one of the first artists to devote his efforts to applied arts." To create a typical atmosphere of the latter half of the 19th Century, the exhibition is supplemented with Historicist furniture from the collection of the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation. | |
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