SILVIJA GROSA JŪGENDSTILA PERIODA PLASTISKAIS UN ...

focusing on Art Nouveau architecture in Rīga, as well as the elements of Art
Nouveau in the visual and plastic arts of Latvia.
Some discussion of the decorative arts from the turn of the 19 th and 20 th
centuries can be found in publications from that period which were devoted to
architecture and art and published in the German, Latvian and Russian language
press, as well as exhibition catalogues and yearbooks. Most of these are
informative texts which skim the surface of the matter. Where data about
construction objects are presented, they are usually limited to the names of the
client and the architect, as well as the technical costs of the project. In a few cases,
the artists who produced the décor of buildings are also mentioned. The most
important source in this regard is a series of almanacs published in German
between 1902 and 1905 by Arend Berkholz under the title “New Modern Buildings
in Rīga: The Rīga Almanac for 1903 to 1906”. Also of an informational nature are
classified ads in address books, publications in the press, as well as several books
published by the Rīga Association of Architects. Among these is the 1903
publication “Rīga and its Buildings”, which was released in German. Beginning in
1907, an annual “Yearbook on the Pictorial Arts in the Eastern Provinces of the
Baltic Sea” was released, also in German. The press of the turn of the 19 th and 20 th
centuries included quite a few reviews of buildings and expressions of viewpoints
about them by architects such as Eižens Laube, by artists including Janis
Rozentāls, Gustavs Šķilters and Jūlijs Madernieks, as well as by publicists such as
Arend Berkholz and Jānis Asars. Here, aspects of decorative art were given only a
secondary role, and the interpretation thereof is fragmentary, empirical,
subjectively shortened and, usually, critically negative.
During the 1920s and 1930s, many Europeans had haughty attitudes of
denial when it came to the architectural heritage from the turn of the centuries.
This was true in Latvia, too. Some publications devoted to architecture simply
tried to ignore the period or to interpret it as a sop to the public taste of the day and
age. Nevertheless, the field of professional art history was developing during this
period, and initial, albeit laconic evaluations of the architecture of the turn of the
centuries were produced. An example is the discussion of the work of Jānis
Rutmanis in “The History of Art” (Vol. 1, 1934), which was edited by Vilhelms
Purvītis.
Nor was there any systematic examination of the decorative arts of the
turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries after World War II. True, such considerations
were fairly inevitable for those who produced general reviews or monographs
devoted to the work of artists, because Soviet ideology interpreted Art Nouveau as
a symbol of decadence and decay. A few publications, however, are important as
sources of factual information (e.g., Jānis Pujāts’ study on the history of stained
glass art in Latvia, which was published in the 1957 edition of the almanac
“Latvian Fine Arts”).
Systematic and targeted research into the architecture and plastic art of the
turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries began in the 1980s.
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