THE OTTO & WASSIL DECORATIVE SCULPTURE WORKSHOP IN RIGA AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY (Dekorativas telniecibas darbnica Otto & Wassil Riga 19. - 20. gs. mija)

• Authors: Grosa Silvija
• Languages of publication: LV

Abstracts

EN

Authorship questions of decorative finish of 19th and 20th century architecture in Riga are still largely unexplored because documentary evidence found in construction histories of buildings does not reveal the executors of decoration works. Information can be sorted out from advertisements, address books or daily press but it is superficial and incomplete. Between 1899 and 1914 there were about twenty workshops of decorative sculpture in Riga; most of their masters were new-comers and workshops functioned for short periods of time. They specialised in different kinds of commissions, and since 1876 the largest and most stable firm of decorative sculpture in Riga belonged to the sculptor August Volz who came from Berlin. Volz is the only Riga sculptor of this branch whose career has been examined in a greater detail. Unlike Volz's company, the role of other workshops is less clearly definable, still Otto & Wassil (after 1903 Wassil & Co) can be considered as one of the most influential workshops of decorative sculpture from 1900 to 1906. The sculptors Zygmunt Otto and Oswald Wassil were founders of this workshop. Data on Wassil is scarce, but quite detailed information on Zygmunt Otto's life and work has been found in Poland. Otto was born in Lvov, 1874, and died In Warsaw, 1944. He studied at the Krakow Academy of Art and specialised in decorative sculpture, although he worked in other branches as well. Otto has elaborated the decorative finish of many buildings in Warsaw, but his Riga period, although short and quite contradictory, gives an idea of his early career. Otto & Wassil received the golden medal for the design of an allegorical decorative fountain at the exhibition of Industry and crafts dedicated to Riga 700th anniversary (1901), but the work was never realised. It is known that the firm produced decorative finish of buildings, and the author of this paper has attempted to expand the list of their achievements by attributing a number of particular examples. Activities of Otto & Wassil in the decoration of Riga buildings promoted influences coming from Berlin and Vienna. This workshop made an important contribution to the plastic decor of several rent houses and shop buildings of the early Art Nouveau period in Riga.

Keywords

EN

ARCHITECTURAL FINIS; DECORATIVE SCULPTURE; OSWALD WASSIL; OTTO & WASSIL; ZYGMUNT OTTO

Discipline

• ARTS_&_ARCHITECTURE: ARTS & ARCHITECTURE

• Publisher: Publishing House 'Neputns', Terbatas iela 49/51-8, Riga LV-1011, Latvia; www.neputns.lv
• Journal: Materiali Latvijas makslas vesturei
• Year: 2004
• Volume: 4
• Pages: 95-104
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Grosa Silvija

• Silvija Grosa, Latvian Academy of Art, Kalpaka bulvaris 13, Riga LV-1867, Latvia

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

11LVAAAA090122