Riga Artists’ group

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Riga Artists’ group
Latvian association of painters and sculptors active from 1920 to 1940. Among its founder-members were JEKABS KAZAKS, ROMANS SUTA and Uga Skulme (1895–1963). From its inception, the group was a small confederation of modernist painters and sculptors devoted to the advancement of avant-garde aesthetics in Latvia. Despite a changing membership, a relatively informal structure and internal disagreements about the specifics of a modernist agenda, the group projected a unified identity in its 13 exhibitions, the earliest of which introduced Latvian interpretations of progressive western European styles to Riga’s conservative audiences. Suta and Uga Skulme were among the most vocal defenders of modernism in Latvia, as they competed for the unofficial position of ideologue of the group. The Riga Artists’ group was the successor to the Expressionists (Ekspresionisti), who were responsible for the local début of Expressionism during the first significant post-war exhibition in independent Latvia. Most members of the Expressionists, including Kazaks, the leader, became founder-members of the Riga Artists’ group, and just as its new, generalized name admitted the possibility of pluralism, members began to explore other styles. The attrition of the Expressionists ALEKSANDR DREVIN, Karlis Johansons (1892–1929) and JAZEPS GROSVALDS may have to some degree limited the range of artistic experimentation, but the group’s radical works, provocative methods and early recognition by the Valsts Makslas Muzejs (State Art Museum) and serious collectors still managed to rankle Riga’s traditionalists. Initially, abstraction was the favoured means of exploration, as seen in the mildly geometrized works of Kazaks, Niklavs Strunke (1894–1966) or Valdemars Tone (1892–1958), the paintings of Gederts Eliass (1887–1975) influenced by Matisse (Reclining Woman, c. 1919; Jelgava Mus.) or those of Konrads Ubans (1893–1981), reminiscent of Cézanne. By 1923 Synthetic Cubism was a predominant influence, notably in the sculptures of Marta Liepina-Skulme (1890–1962; see LATVIA, fig. 3) and Emils Melderis (1889–1979) and the paintings of Oto Skulme (1889–1967) and Erasts Sveics (1895–1993; Woman with Pitcher, 1923; priv. col.). Ironically, after their so-called Cubist show of 1923–4 and their joint exhibitions with the ESTONIAN ARTISTS’ GROUP and the Polish Constructivists of Blok (1924), realism was reappearing as an artistic force, and the members of the group were sharply berated by traditionalists who felt that their influences were outmoded. Shortly after, Suta and Aleksandra Belcova (1892–1981), the more liberal members, left to undertake projects influenced by Purism and Constructivism, while others turned towards realism, as did Uga Skulme, who explored NEUE SACHLICHKEIT, or Janis Cielava (1890–1968) and Janis Liepins (1894–1964), who created lyrical, romantic works. While this reappearance of realism during the 1930s is considered by some to be retardataire, it was yet another local manifestation of a broader European phenomenon. (hide)

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