Ieskats Aivara Gulbja radošajā darbībā. Monumentālās un monumentāli dekoratīvās skulptūras

• Authors: Bremša Laila

Title variants

EN

Insight into the Creative Work of Aivars Gulbis. Monumental and Decorative Sculptures

• Languages of publication: LT

Abstracts

EN

The article deals with monumental and decorative compositions by the Latvian sculptor Aivars Gulbis (b. 1933). The artist developed a modernist-inspired style in monumental and small-scale sculpture. After the restoration of Latvia’s independence, he mainly created exhibition sculptures influenced by geometrical modernism. Gulbis’ first independent composition – a small sunken-relief monument commemorating revolutions in Valka (1963) – was also realised in granite. This monument started his “severe style” language seen in some exhibition works of the time. In 1969, Gulbis together with sculptors Jānis Karlovs and Juris Mauriņš organised an exhibition at the Artists’ House where Gulbis exhibited an innovative composition for the time titled “Perpetuum mobile”. It was actually the first kinetic sculpture, also painted red. Afterwards Gulbis created several decorative compositions that add much to this field – the reliefs “Man” and “Woman” (1969), the sculpture “Apple” (1989) and a sculpture in the round “Tree of Life” (1983). The motif of flight is realised in the composition “Muse of Revolution” (1971, Rainis Cemetery). From this work on, Gulbis developed his sculptural interests towards Romanticism, capturing movement in a three-dimensional volume. Gulbis’ most important monumental work, also the largest and most original grave monument in Soviet-period sculpture, is installed in the Forest Cemetery in Riga, dedicated to writer and Soviet state official Vilis Lācis. Gulbis took part in the 1977 competition for the Riga Victory Monument. The tripartite composition (opened in 1985) was formally eclectic. Gulbis created a 10 m high bronze image of Mother Homeland and child meeting the Red Army soldiers. After Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2022, the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia voted to dismantle the Victory Monument. Aivars Gulbis developed his talent under Soviet rule, choosing decorative sculpture as a greater opportunity to work with modernised forms and solve the themes of space and movement. Agreeing to create an ideological monument, he had to encounter rivalry, censorship and also critical attitudes of the public later.

Keywords

EN

Aivars Gulbis; Latvian sculpture; monumental sculpture; decorative sculpture; memorial ensembles; modernism; romanticism; art and politics

• Publisher: Institute of Art History of the Latvian Academy of Art and Art History Research Support Foundation
• Journal: Makslas Vesture un Teorija
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 26
• Pages: 66-80

Contributors

author

Bremša Laila

• Art Academy of Latvia, Kalpaka bulvāris 13, Riga LV-1867, Latvia