ANNA/ASJA LACIS AND THE MULTILINGUALITY OF THE OTHER

Author(s): Susan Ingram / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

The article discusses the multilingual nature of Anna/Asja Lācis’s own works as well as those devoted to her. When Anna Lācis’s memoirs were published in German in 1971, the editor Hildegard Brenner pointed out that the name Asja Lācis should appear more often in the research on Walter Benjamin and the cultural scene of Weimar. Asja Lācis did not receive well-deserved acclaim over the subsequent decades either. The conference, which is devoted to Asja Lācis and her work in the context of proletarian theatre and the ideas of leftism, indicates that the situation has changed under the influence of geopolitical and technological circumstances. The article analyses the influence of changes in the world on approaches to translation in culture and ensures an insight into Walter Benjamin’s translation work before meeting Asja Lācis in Capri. The goal of the paper is to analyse the efficiency of such work in order to understand both the difficulties in their relationships and the reception of their literary heritage, which are closely intertwined, as well as to facilitate the dialogue between this reception and leftism, which juxtaposes it to Antonio Gramsci’s works about translatability.

ANNA (ASJA) LĀCIS KULTŪRU UN IDEOLOĢIJU KRUSTPUNKTĀ

Author(s): Beata Paškevica / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 2/2015

The article explores the course of formation of the positions of Asja Lācis’s theatre aesthetics in the early period of her activity, mainly in Riga during the 1920s. The article takes a chronological look at the first theatre impressions of German and Latvian theatres in Riga. Special attention is paid to Asja Lācis’s change of aesthetic views under the influence of the Russian avant-garde. In contrast to the exuberance of Hedda Gabler and the existential loneliness in Ibsen’s psychological theatre, the new Russian avant-garde theatrical search stressed the biomechanical conception and the role of the actor as a player in a theatre company. The key position in Asja Lācis’s personal work of directing in Riga amateur theatre of the leftist trade unions was the aesthetic requirements of the proletarian cult and the theatre of October. She tried to create a radical avant-garde theatre and expressed her aesthetic views in a number of articles in the Latvian leftist press. Anna Lācis’s experiments in Oryol and the Riga theatres, which were based on her acquired experience of the Russian avant-garde, served as a catalyst for her further cooperation with Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht; it also influenced the development of different contemporary theatre trends.

Ceļā uz monogrāfiju par Kārli Baltgaili

Author(s): Anna Pūtele / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 22/2019

Kārlis Baltgailis was born in Gatarta Manor on 15 (27) March 1893. When the family moved to Riga, his father began working in the port and little Kārlis, inspired by the stories he heard, once dreamed of becoming a seaman. Unfortunately, this was impossible because of his myopia and so he took up other occupations, including drawing. Baltgailis acquired more thorough art skills at Janis Rozentāls’ art studio (1906–1907) but at the Atis Ķeniņš Boys Realschule (1907–1911), he received a good education with many prominent Latvian cultural figures who became outstanding examples for Baltgailis to follow in his own pedagogical career. During his school years he also made friends with the artist Jēkabs Kazaks. After finishing the Realschule, Baltgailis moved to Russia where he attended Penza Secondary Art School (1911–1917). Some of the Riga City Art School students moved there too after the school was reorganised in 1915. With their arrival, a group of young Latvian artists emerged with Baltgailis among them; they tried to realise progressive modernist ideas in the rather conservative Penza. Having received a secondary school teaching certificate in drawing and art history, Baltgailis returned to Riga in May 1917 and volunteered for the 5th Zemgale Latvian Riflemen’s Regiment. As a soldier he ended up in Russia again where he stayed in Omsk but returned to Riga from Vladivostok with the Imanta Regiment in 1920. Back in his native land, Baltgailis joined Latvia’s artistic life gradually but his teaching work began quite soon. Since 1920, he taught drawing in Cēsis but in 1922, he became the teacher of drawing, art history and drawing methodology at Jelgava Teachers’ Institute where he taught until its closing in 1944. In 1925, Baltgailis co-founded the artists’ and writers’ society Zaļā Vārna (Green Crow, 1925–1939). Almost all of his 30 years work – sketches, paintings, drawings as well as materials gathered on various artists – was lost in the fire that ravaged Jelgava in 1944. In autumn the same year, he became the first teacher at the newly formed Cēsis Teachers’ Institute. In 1945, Baltgailis was admitted to the Latvian SSR Artists’ Union but in 1946, he began working at the drawing studio of Cēsis House of Culture (1946–1956). In 1950, Baltgalis was dismissed from his teacher’s job at Cēsis Teachers’ Institute and expelled from the Artists’ Union as a result of Soviet repressions. In 1958, he was readmitted to the Artists’ Union. Kārlis Baltgailis died in Cēsis on 15 February 1979. Baltgailis belongs to the generation of Latvian artists born in the 1890s, witnessing a new turn in Latvian painting towards modernist creativity. As the most direct follower of the ideas of Jāzeps Grosvalds and Jēkabs Kazaks, he became the only artist who consistently pursued the iconographic and stylistic line of early modernism over his entire creative career. When Grosvalds and Kazaks had both passed away, Baltgailis became a unique phenomenon, especially in battle painting, making the war theme the focus of his art. He arranged his oil, tempera and watercolour works in several series, the main ones being related to three historical battlefields – “Ložmetējkalns” (Machine Gun Hill), “Nāves sala” (The Isle of Death) and “By the River Mazā Jugla”. When the destruction of war was still in the near future, Baltgailis probably encountered Grosvalds’ works for the first time at some exhibition of Latvian artists’ works in Riga. Unlike Grosvalds, Baltgailis probably did not work in the battlefield. The first interpretations of war themes emerged later around 1918 when Baltgailis was in Omsk. The end of his military service is depicted in the riflemen’s magazine Kaija (Seagull, 1920) with drawings telling about the trip from Vladivostok to Latvia together with the Imanta White Latvian Riflemen’s Regiment. While back in Latvia, Baltgailis began to interpret the themes of riflemen in more elaborated oil, tempera and watercolour compositions. The artist’s individual style was yet in the making but it was already clear that the image of the rifleman would occupy a significant place in his art. The 1920s and early 1930s was the period with the most pronounced Expressionist tendencies in Baltgailis’ art, which could be seen in the work of other modernists too. This was also his most prolific period when his maturity and professionalism became evident and his form and style – established. In this period, his most acclaimed works on the theme of riflemen emerged – “The Isle of Death” (1933, LNMA) and “Spring in Tīreļpurvs” (1934, LNMA). In the period of Socialist Realism when the theme and style were determined by Soviet ideology, Baltgailis continued to paint – he created new works or restored the lost ones from memory. With the Khrushchev “thaw”, riflemen scenes by modernist artists were used as iconographic and stylistic sources of Latvian “Red” Riflemen. It is hard to establish the role of Baltgailis’ examples but there are certain similarities to other artists’ works on the riflemen subject in the Soviet period. Most comparable are the exiled artist Juris Soikans’ tempera paintings. In the early 1950s, Baltgailis increasingly took up religious compositions too. Unfortunately, in most cases only black and white photographs have survived of these works, allowing us to assess just the compositional solution. Baltgailis was not only an artist and pedagogue but also an organiser of public life and critic of major cultural processes. In the late 1920s, Baltgailis together with other enthusiasts of Jelgava’s cultural life began work to found the Zemgale Museum. Throughout his life, Baltgailis gathered and systematised materials on numerous artists. From a small card index, it gradually grew into a voluminous archive, now held by the specialists of the Latvian National Library. The archive contains a wealth of information on both known and more marginal artists. Further studies of Kārlis Baltgailis’ life and art can broaden the understanding of artistic and cultural developments, personalities and their relationships in significant and complex periods of Latvia’s history, paying especial attention to the processes outside Riga in Jelgava and Cēsis.

Preservation of Street Art in Paris. An Example for Riga?

Author(s): Valērija Želve / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

In many cities graffiti and street art is considered as vandalism and is often connected with crime. However, in some cities majority of the population does not agree with such a statement. They see street art and graffiti as decoration of the city. They think the artists deserve a safe space for expressing themselves. It is already a little step towards preserving the street art movement, as, of course, not all the citizens will share this opinion, since place of street art is still a very arguable question in many cities around the world. More and more organisations, associations and projects of different types are being created to promote and protect the urban art. Promotion of street art can be expressed in different ways, for example, panel discussions and workshops, exhibitions and festivals. Several street art and graffiti related spaces are being opened in Paris. Museums, warehouses, walls, schools – every kind of space could be used as a platform for the artists. This is also a nice way to show to the city council how important this culture is to the citizens of Paris. At the same time Riga cannot be yet proud of a thriving street art and graffiti culture. But what if Riga actually took Paris as an example? Could similar organisations in Latvia improve the society’s attitude towards urban cultures? Could the safe platform for street art be a solution for its popularization in Riga? The aim of this paper is to introduce organisations which promote and protect street art and graffiti in Paris and to evaluate if street art positions in Paris could actually be an example for Riga. The conclusion is that the bigger amount of such organisations is able to actually change the attitude of society towards the urban art and Riga can surely learn a lot from Paris – creating spaces for graffiti and street artists can not only make their positions better, but also it can have a positive impact for the city’s social life and attract a specific type of tourists to the capital.

Towards Social Cinema: Extending of Riga Poetic Style in the 1970s

Author(s): Inga Pērkone-Redoviča / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

In the 1960s, a group of young and very gifted documentary filmmakers established themselves at Riga Film Studio and developed a poetic style, based on visual metaphors which they named themselves as Riga Style but later in the Soviet and East European context the style and its creators came to be known as Riga Poetic Documentary Film School. Yet in the 1970s one can identify pronounced focusing by the documentary filmmakers on social issues, the aspirations to offer in their films analysis of the problems existing in the society and sometimes offering their solution without losing the artistic qualities of the films. The article written in 1971 by Armīns Lejiņš, the script writer and theorist of the poetic cinema, “Poetic Cinema + Scientific Cinema = Social Cinema” can be perceived as their manifesto. Lejiņš was convinced that by combining poetry and science, Riga documentary filmmakers could facilitate henceforth logical, analytical and dialectical thinking culture in their films. Within the framework of my article, I’ll provide a broader insight into the social angle of films by Latvian documentary filmmakers, into their thematic and aesthetic aspects, and also offer a more detailed analysis of the film “The Woman We Expect?” (Sieviete, kuru gaida?, 1978) – the concept, the process of its making, relations with censorship and its reception.

Visual Representation of Riga: Living Space in Soviet Cinematography

Author(s): Jānis Matvejs / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

This study contributes to the field of the human geography by conducting a content analysis of a vast number of Soviet movies with focusing on development and spatial organization of living spaces in Riga. In this article, the author sheds light on the construction of meaning of space and cultural politics, where relation of dominance is defined and contested in visual representation of Riga’s residential apartments. The aim of this article is to examine the portrayal of lived space of Riga through the movies of the Soviet period. During this research, the author has used a qualitative research methodology based on the best practices of human geography data transcription and coding. The research consists of the analysis of 290 movies. The main findings show that living spaces are frequently portrayed in the Soviet cinema and they form an integral part of the Soviet urban perception. However, state-imposed censorship throughout the Soviet period strictly regulated geographical disposition in representing living spaces through intensifying or neglecting particular areas of Riga. The images of Riga and of living space found in films are often ideologically charged.

Principles and Logic of the Depiction of Flowers in Vanitas Photography

Author(s): Līga Sakse / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

Art must reflect something that cannot be called trivial or perceived by rational means, as well as what we cannot experience in reality – the borderline between life and non-existence, death among other things. Certainly, ways of depiction vary – there are works of art where the temporariness of life and the inevitability of death have been modelled as a type of a game and there are also those works of art that bear an indirect reminder of death – through allegories or metaphors. Vanitas belongs to the latter. Vanitas is an allegorically presented still life that emerged as an independent genre in about 1550 and became most widespread in the 16th and 17th centuries in Belgium and Flanders. Traditionally the composition of a still life of this type included a human skull, a burnt-out candle, small cut flowers as well as other objects that all seemed to say – everything and anything is transient. The purpose of the paper is to undertake the comparative analysis of vanitas still lives by artists from the USA, Japan and Germany. The photographs of flowers will be used to read the cultural historical message contained in them as well as the technical means of expression used in photography that are enhanced by a profoundly personal depiction. The perceivable designation created by the photographer and the aesthetic object registered by the collective consciousness will be defined and described taking into consideration, as far as possible, the social context that has led to the creation of the given artefact. Works of art will be summarised according to different principles of depiction and the main trends that are reflected in contemporary art photography and have not been encountered before will be outlined. It will result in a general overview through applying acceptable norms that will make it possible to determine whether the picture is or is not contemporary as well as to establish criteria characterising the concept of the contemporary.

Stille Kracht. Inspiracje kulturą Jawy w twórczości Jana Tooropa

Author(s): Aleksandra Lipińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2006

Interpretacje „Szału” Władysława Podkowińskiego w poezji młodopolskiej

Author(s): Justyna Bajda / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2007

Luxus niezależności w potransformacyjnej Polsce

Author(s): Piotr Stasiowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2007

Polsko-Niemieckie Seminarium Wrocław-Halle „Gdańsk w czasach nowożytnych: między luterańską ortodoksją a wielością wyznań w wolnym mieście”, Gdańsk, 28 maja-2 czerwca 2007

Author(s): Maciej Kulisz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2007

Muzikalumo raiškos formos P. Klee ir M. K. Čiurlionio tapyboje

Author(s): Antanas Andrijauskas / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 121/2024

The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of musical painting by Paul Klee and Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. It discusses the origins of the painting style of both artists, the influence of their early musical education on their creative development and the principles of interaction between painting and music. Particular attention is paid to the influence of theosophical, orientalist and colour theories on the development of musicality in their artistic work. This is followed by a comparative analysis that reveals the links between her paintings and similar explorations in the name of V. Kandinsky. Based on these revelations, the author argues that, despite the differences between Klee and Čiurlionis in terms of creative potential, personal character, aesthetic priorities, solutions to assumed creative tasks, artistic expression, and complex metamorphoses of artistic style, a closer look at the strategies of integration between painting and music that they shared reveals many similarities, particularly in the areas of abstraction of colour solutions and artistic forms associated with Theosophical, Orientalist, and colour theories.

Františekas Kupka ir Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis: abstraktėjančios spalvų muzikos stilistinės metamorfozės

Author(s): Antanas Andrijauskas / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 122/2025

The article is dedicated to comparative analysis of musical painting by František Kupka and Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. It first provides a discussion of the origins of both artists’ painting style and explorations in the field of interaction between painting and music. Particular attention is given to the influence that Theosophical, Orientalist and colour theories had on development of musicality in their artistic work. Then follows a comparative analysis that reveals their paintings’ links with similar quests and their paintings show links to various neo-romantic and modernist painting movements. Based on these revelations the author argues that despite Kupka and Čiurlionis’s differences in artistic expression and complex metamorphoses of artistic style, a closer look at the strategies of integration between painting and music that was common to them both reveals many similarities that are particularly apparent in the areas of abstraction of colouring solutions and artistic forms associated with Theosophical, Orientalist and colour theories.

Sovietinis modernizmas ir tautinio savitumo raiška atlydžio laikotarpio dailėje: Lietuva ir Estija

Author(s): Pillė Veljataga / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 122/2025

The article discusses the modernization of art and the expression of national character during the Thaw period in applied arts, design, and graphic arts in Lithuania and Estonia. It compares the art processes in both countries, aiming to reveal the similarities and differences. The paper reviews applied arts and design, which responded to the Soviet cultural policy of the Thaw period, aiming to improve the aesthetic quality of the living environment. It also explores the discourse on modernity and national identity. The article discusses graphic arts – a branch of visual arts where Soviet modernism first took shape – and reflects on the national schools of Lithuanian and Estonian art in art criticism.

Glass Intaglio With the Portrait of Silenus from Galilee: Stylistic Analysis, Provenience, Dating, and Meaning

Author(s): Svetlana Tarkhanova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2025

A small glass intaglio with the impressed portrait of Silenus was found in Galilee some years ago. By its technical and stylistic characteristics, it dates back to the Persian–Early Hellenistic period. Based on the general historical, cultural, and economic conditions of the period, it is supposed to have originated from one of the Greek islands, where the cult of Silenus emerged at that time and was imported to the Land of Israel. Amazingly, in the collection of E. Borowski, the exact glass duplicate of the gem with Silenus was encountered in the course of research (currently located in the Bible Land Museum). Such coincidences very rarely occur in research on small ancient objects. The discovery of this Pagan gem in Galilee sheds light on the spread of the Dionysiac cults and the development of the religious and economic links between the Land of Israel and the Classical Greek world.

Intaglio with the portrait of Silenus from Galilee and the composition of the “inverted/summary faces” in the Greco-Roman period

Author(s): Svetlana Tarkhanova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2025

A Persian-Early Hellenistic glass intaglio with the portrait of Silenus was found in Galilee some years ago. Except for the testimony of the spread of Dionysiac cults in the Syro-Palaestinian region during such an early period, the occasional finding would not bear so much meaning if not for the unique iconographical features of the Silenus’s portrait. When turned upside down, the face of the apathetic, passionless Silenus transforms into the portrait of the evil face, supposedly of a Cyclop Polythemus or satyr's mask (two interchangeable faces). The composition of the “inverted faces” might be considered one of the types of more developed synthetic compositions comprised of several faces or creatures and usually applied on the gems (known as janiform or grylloi/baskania). Many remote parallels were mentioned in these rows of examples. The “inverted faces” (bes or pazuzu) are rarer, but they were still applied to some Persian and Hellenistic coins and gems, which were often interconnected iconographically. Most notable is the Roman red glass gem in the British Museum collection, which is decorated with two “inverted faces”: it is incredibly close by its iconography to the gem under consideration. In addition, a unique Roman ceramic beaker from the Budapest History Museum and the Roman glass flask from the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv adorned with interchangeable faces were mentioned and interpreted. In my opinion, the composition with “inverted/summary faces” is highly underestimated in the history of Classical art and might be detected in a broader range of samples if only it was taken into consideration (usually, the reversibility of the faces remains unnoticed).

Książę i dama na turnieju. Przejawy obyczajowości turniejowej w sztuce śląskiego średniowiecza

Author(s): Jacek Witkowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2010

The first known tournament in Silesia was given by the duke Boleslas II the Horned in Lwówek Śląski in 1243. Henry IV Probus, the duke of Wrocław, was a particular tournament lover, what is commemorated in the ‘Codex Manesse’ from the first quarter of the 14th century. The given by him tournaments of 1284 and 1287/88 are well certified. In the 14th century also Boleslas III the Generous, the duke of Legnica, was an amateur of chivalry games. Frederick I and Frederick II, the dukes of Legnica, erected in the years 1473-1525 a specially designed tournament castle of St. George in Grodziec. There is a complete tournament outfit left behind Frederick II, deriving from 1512-15 and commissioned on the occasion of his marriage to Elizabeth Jagiellon, a king’s daughter. A modern, late Medieval tournament armour is depicted as early as ca. 1435 on the duke Louis II’s tomb.Three groups of seals should be also related to tournament habits. The first one, from the period of the mid 13th to the mid 14th century, is connected mainly with the Piasts of Głogów and depicts dukes entering the tournament lists, accompanied by dames handing in tournament helmets and pennants to them. These presentations have no analogies in European sphragistics. Therefore it seems to be the concept of the duke Conrad I of Głogów, who had been studying in Paris and got to know chivalric customs and court culture of Western Europe personally. The idea was also influenced by tournament habits, works of literature and works of so called small-sized art. The duchess Jutta’s of Ziębice seal is related to this group, too.The second group is constituted by horse seals with the images of dukes dressed in tournament outfits at the moment of charging. They were in use in the period between the 1250s to the 1380s. The 14th-century seals since ca. 1321 refer to French sigilla by following royal and magnateship Bohemian seals.The third group of walkers’ seals depict the dukes themselves heading for a tournament in rich outfits and helmets. These are seals of the Piasts of Świdnica-and-Jawor and the Piasts of Legnica from the period between the end of the 13th and the beginnings of the 15th century.The greatest of the horse seals is the one of Boleslas III the Generous, which can be related to the king John of Luxembourg. Along with some other patterns it became the basis for a monumental stone sculpture of ca. 1320-30, placed on the keystone of his burial chapel at the Cistercian church in Lubiąż, which is yet another unique example of chivalrous and court culture.

„Dürer nie spadł z nieba”. R. Suckale, Die Erneuerung der Malkunst vor Dürer, Petersberg 2009

Author(s): Agnieszka Patała / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2011

Two volumes of Die Erneuerung der Malkunst vor Dürer by Robert Suckale comes as a wide state of research over painting of the second half of 15th c. in Nuremberg and Bamberg, a publication in which the author proves that attributing Albrecht Dürer many innovative solutions is incorrect, as the artist, in quite many cases, made use of older than him masters’ achievements. The above mentioned title comes as a very helpful one in studies in Late Gothic art of not only Franconia but also of artistic centres related to this area, e.g. Wrocław and, not directly, other Lower Silesian towns. Moreover, next to numerous plots of high interest, Suckale deals with a problem of influence of Early Netherlandish painting on German art, with special attention paid to Franconia, stating many conclusions which may become helpful in researching this issue within the area of Silesia.

Sociologija gledališča v dobi negotovosti tekočih družb

Author(s): Tomaž Toporišič / Language(s): Slovenian Issue: 105-106/2024

The article looks at the possibilities for the sociology of theatre in an era of liquid modernity (Bauman), uncertainty, and individualism. Namely, the fields of research proposed by G. Gurvitch in the 1950s, J. Duvignaud in the 1960s, and M. Shevtsova and P. Pavis in the 1990s remain relevant today. However, sociology of theatre must engage in a dialogue with cultural studies (R. Williams, S. Hall), critical social theory (T. W. Adorno), gender and sexuality studies (J. Dolan), postcolonial studies (E. Said/G. Spivak), race studies (H. Young), reception studies (H. R. Jauss), and the renewed semiotic of Fischer-Lichte in the aesthetics of the performative. By taking these steps, the sociology of theatre can provide insights into the dynamic relationship between theatre and society.

TRADICIJA I MIMEZIS KAO OSNOVNE KARAKTERISTIKE NASTAVE LIKOVNOG VASPITANJA

Author(s): Marin Milutinović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 18/2019

A basic assumption of successful art education in schools is the fact that the phenomenon of fine art is complex and stratified. Each curriculum which considers one and only one segment of fine art phenomenon and holds on it, is untenable. The fact that fine art isists on optical and thematic values of drawing (meaning that the drawing is only a copy of given object), is rejected a long time ago, since that is the only one segment could not achieve complex aims of fine art education. It is the same for the visual communications. Such contents in teaching can not contribute to development of creativity. A fine art is nothing without accepting the chosen medium, individual method of forming, the art tradition, the spirit of certain time ect. A message of fine art is a mixture of all segments of fine art forms, and it is transmited with an art and aesthetic symbols (a fine art language). The equality of people is the fact in modern humanistic upbringing, and it is accomplished in very long general, common education, so that fact is unavoidably important for people to be able to use spiritual and human values, not only for the enrichment of the individual, but also for the enrichment of whole society, and complete process of production and quality of life, So, fine art education is something that all people need.