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Memoriālais ansamblis un karagūstekņu piemineklis Salaspilī

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Bremša L.

Makslas Vesture un Teorija

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2018

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vol. 21

72-87

EN

The memorial ensemble on the site of the former Salaspils concentration camp (1967) and the nearby monument to Red Army prisoners of war (1968) are among the most significant Second World War memorials in Latvia’s Soviet-period art. After half a century since the opening of these monuments, the Soviet regime is gone and they no longer represent the official ideology. These monuments of artistic worth can now be reinterpreted and we can add new information to the history of their creation using the latest sources. The memorial competition was announced in 1960, receiving 24 proposals that earned two second prizes, one third prize and four promotional prizes. Initially, the authors of awarded designs formed the creative team; the group proved to be too large with sculptors and architects of different ages, life experiences, creative styles and ideas about the relationship between architecture and sculpture within an ensemble. The team’s final version was approved only shortly before the ensemble’s opening in 1967. The design process of the ensemble was full of both personal and conceptual discord. Modernist architects wanted a more expressive, emotionally powerful sculpture while sculptors adhered to Latvian sculptural traditions, aiming to bring the topical “Severe Style” tendency or geometricised Socialist Modernism into the ensemble. The memorial’s composition and relationships of architecture and sculpture aimed at marking the main elements of the former camp’s planning, making the visitor feel the spaces of suffering and annihilation. The ensemble’s most successful element is an asymmetrically constructed, massive geometric volume signifying the boundary between the spaces of “life” and “death”. It is built of monolithic concrete, retaining the mould impressions on the wall planes. The material and forms used were aimed at expressing harsh truth; one can say that Salaspils is the most consistent example of Brutalism in Latvia’ s conditions. On 7 February 2018, a museum exposition was opened in Salaspils, the ensemble was renovated and turned into an informative, up-to-date memorial.

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SCULPTURE IN URBAN SPACE: SOME ASPECTS OF RELATIONSHIPS (Dazi telniecibas un pilsetvides attiecibu aspekti)

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Caupova R.

Materiali Latvijas makslas vesturei

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2004

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vol. 4

163-185

EN

Sculptural works of different kinds and sizes always have had their place and role in the context of wide-ranging functions and spatial structures of urban space. In comparison with buildings and other architectural objects monuments and various sculptural creations are more directly used to promote certain ideology or express the taste typical of the particular period. Political and socio-psychological factors influence their creation and assessment. Even popular sculptural works when placed in the open air are sometimes perceived as anonymous makings. They become legendary. Both organised and spontaneous ritual activities take place near monuments and different spatial objects. It is often hard to predict how sculptural works will look in the urban space and what semantic layers will be created around them. The increasing sculptural boom characteristic of many European cities around the turn of the 20th century and later was not so typical of Riga. The few monuments set up in Riga represented the ideology of the Russian Imperial power. No sculptural images expressing Latvian national self-consciousness could be created and exhibited at that time. Still one has to admit that Riga monuments and decorative sculptures from this period, mainly by German sculptors, show well-considered choices of scale and placement. One has to emphasise the German-born sculptor August Franz Leberecht Volz's (1851-1926) important role in securing the professional level of sculptural forms created in Riga urban space. This representative of the German school who settled in Riga and founded his own company has realised many commissions in both decorative sculpture and plastic decor. After an independent state was established, urban space development and especially erection of monuments became an officially supervised task. During the Soviet period monument construction was subjected to a strongly centralised administrative supervision. A little more liberal attitude towards sculptural works in public space emerged in the 1970s

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THE SCULPTOR ROBERTAS ANTINIS, SR, AND LATVIA: LINKS AND ANALOGIES (Telnieks Roberts Antinis, vecakais, un Latvija: Saiknes un analogijas)

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Caupova R.

Materiali Latvijas makslas vesturei

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2001

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vol. 2

80-94

EN

In various areas of cultural activity between Latvian and Lithuanian nations, and especially in the area of sculpture, an important role was played by the Latvian-born Lithuanian sculptor Robertas Antinis, Sr, and his son, Robertas Antinis, Jr. Robertas Antinis, Sr. was born on December 3, 1898, in the homestead of Kaldabruna, village of Bebrene in Ilukste District. Unlike the Latvian sculptors Karlis Zale, Emils Melderis and Marta Skulme, for whom the most important influences were Cubism and other aspects of the Constructive movement in 20th century art, Antinis' unique creativity was formed under the influence of different impulses. He got his first professional education at the Kaunas School of Art (1921-1927), where a number of lectors encouraged students to study national artistic traditions. Between 1928 and 1933 the Lithuanian state paid Antinis a scholarship, which allowed him to study at the National University of Decorative Art in Paris, as well as at the private Academie Julian. While in Paris, Antinis produced artworks which were clearly based on the primal mythology of Lithuanian culture, and in a very unusual way they also reflected the late echoes of Art Nouveau. Of great importance to Antinis were the plastic and tectonic means of construction of French sculptors Aristide Maillol and Antoine Bourdelle.. During his summer holidays, Antinis created his first monumental sculptures dedicated to his country's independence - Sirvintos (1927) and Rokiskis (1929-1931). The post-war years were difficult for Antinis, Sr., as for many of the Baltic region's most prominent sculptors. Antinis entered competitions for the design of the Salaspils Memorial and the Kaunas IX Fortress ensemble in the 1960s, and his proposals revealed a powerful sense of tragedy, of a life subject to destruction. In the fall of 1977, Antinis, Sr. and Antinis, Jr. had an exhibition of their works at the Vault Hall of the Museum of Foreign Art in Riga. After 1972, both father and son participated in several sculpture quadrennials in Riga. Robertas Antinis, Sr. died on November 19, 1981, and he is buried at the Petrosiunu Cemetery in Kaunas.

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PERCEPTION OF MONUMENTS AND THE CITY ENVIRONMENT: CHANGEABILITY OF TRENDS AND SEMANTIC ASPECTS (Pilsetvides un piemineklu uztvere: iespeju un semantikas planu mainigums)

72%

Caupova R.

Makslas Vesture un Teorija

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2009

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vol. 12

27-37

EN

We know that while creating powerful images, the builders of ancient temples and sanctuaries also believed in their beneficial effect and potential to secure a channel of interaction between people and the divine energies of nature and the universe. Unfortunately, over the centuries monumental sculpture, in turning to the much more pragmatic tasks of serving various ideologies, lost both this transcendental orientation and the belief in the immortality of skillfully executed sculptures. More sensitive viewers took a dislike to the didactic, obtrusive, official tone of such monuments. However, it cannot be denied that at least the partial democratisation of public relations and commission practice enabled the erection of monuments not just to statesmen but also to creators of cultural values and contributors to some humane undertaking. Although these might feature repeated the standard busts and figures, attitudes towards the commemoration of popular cultural figures could be responsive and even warm-hearted. The true reputation of the cultural representatives, their output being rooted in the collective consciousness of the nation, adds to the perception in these cases. A typical example is the granite monument to the Latvian writer Rudofs Blaumanis by Teodors Zalkalns set up in the Riga canal parkland in 1929. From foreign examples one could name, for instance, the bronze monument to the world-famous Irish writer James Joyce, represented as a seemingly simple image in a distracted posture standing by the street in Dublin; there is also the Swedish poet Carl Michael Bellman's monument in Stockholm and several other intimately treated representatives of the creative professions in various cities all over the world.

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Memoriālais ansamblis un karagūstekņu piemineklis Salaspilī

SCULPTURE IN URBAN SPACE: SOME ASPECTS OF RELATIONSHIPS (Dazi telniecibas un pilsetvides attiecibu aspekti)

THE SCULPTOR ROBERTAS ANTINIS, SR, AND LATVIA: LINKS AND ANALOGIES (Telnieks Roberts Antinis, vecakais, un Latvija: Saiknes un analogijas)

PERCEPTION OF MONUMENTS AND THE CITY ENVIRONMENT: CHANGEABILITY OF TRENDS AND SEMANTIC ASPECTS (Pilsetvides un piemineklu uztvere: iespeju un semantikas planu mainigums)