History of Latvian Art Theory
History of Latvian Art Theory

Definitions of Art in the Context of the Prevailing Ideas of the Time (1900-1940)

Author(s): Stella Pelše
Subject(s): History, Philosophy, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Aesthetics, History of ideas
Published by: Mākslas vēstures pētījumu atbalsta fonds
Keywords: Latvian art theory; art history; aesthetics; symbolism; Neo-Romanticism; Marxism; modernism; Activism; formalism; intuitivism; nationalist ideology
Summary/Abstract: This volume is the first in the series of doctoral dissertations initiated by the Institute of Art History of the Latvian Academy of Art and intended to make art-historical research more accessible to a wider public. The book provides an historical survey of ideas in Latvian art theory (1900–1940) so far not examined in detail. General problems regarding visual arts are in focus, particularly definitions of art. Texts under scrutiny have been selected from a wide variety of sources – books, collected articles, magazines, newspapers, unpublished manuscripts, diaries, etc., authored by artists, poets, critics, historians and representatives of other professions. The influx of radical changes in Latvian artistic practice since the late 1980s has also increased the role of theoretical statements, inviting elucidation of historical precedents. Where should one draw the line between acceptable and even necessary “alien” elements and blind submission to foreign avant-garde examples? The conclusion that Latvian culture exists at the cross-roads of the most diverse influences reveals a persistent situation of choice that is not only a matter of the history of art theory but also of theoretical thinking on art in the present.

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