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		Mikalojus Ciurlionis' Space and Time Lionginas Sepetis, Soviet Life, (12)351, 50-53, May 1985 [1]
Download this article in Adobe Acrobat Reader format sepetis.pdf		In recent years the name of Lithuanian painter and composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis and his paintings which won recognition in Russia, Poland and Germany prior to World War I and then dropped out of the limelight, have again started to arouse considerable interest. Soviet art historian Lionginas Sepetis Candidate of Science (Art), takes a look at the creative genius of this outstanding artist. Lithuanian composer and artist Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1875-1911) lived a short but fruitful life. In just 35 years he composed more than 200 musical pieces and painted about 200 canvases, of which not one was sold during his lifetime. Practically all of his known paintings, graphic works and originals of his musical opuses have been collected and put on display at the Ciurlionis Museum, built in 1967, in Kaunas, Lithuania. The works of Ciurlionis pose the complex question of whether and to what extent the power of the creative imagination helps the artist perceive and transform reality into artistic images. Ciurlionis' imagination turned polyphony and rhythm into visual symbols. The French writer Remain Rolland called the phenomenon "a completely new continent" and the artist its "Christopher Columbus." Mikalojus Ciurlionis was born on September 22, 1875, in the little Lithuanian town of Varena. He inherited his gift for music from his father, who was an organist, and his first esthetic impressions and fantasies were associated with the beautiful, richly wooded environs of Druskininkai and with Lithuanian tales, legends and folk songs. He became an accomplished musician, studying at conservatories in Leipzig and Warsaw. After graduating from the Conservatory of Music in Warsaw in 1899, Ciurlionis undertook a bold step: He turned down an offer to become the director of the Lublin Music School, which would have given him material security but would have hampered his artistic aspirations. Thus started his impetuous ascent to the heights of creativity, but undermined by want and other problems, his health gradually began to fail. The diverse interests of Ciurlionis, the artist, found very specific, stirring and contrasting expression in music in the form of boundless fantasy and laconic thought. His symphonic poems In the Forest (1900-1901) and The Sea (1903-1907) not only are spatial images of nature but also contain a complex world of emotions, a profound philosophy of human existence and an inspired menu mentality . Little by little, Ciurlionis moved away from music and, starting in 1907, devoted himself wholly to painting. The painter's stylistic harmony was molded in the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. The love of drawing that he retained from childhood was supplemented by a new quest for color, which was characteristic of European painters at the time. Ciurlionis painted much and created his first symbolic pictures. He soon gained renown among his fellow artists, and his paintings won prizes at the frequent exhibitions of the students at the school. In 1906, when the school held an exhibition in St, Petersburg, his pictures attracted the attention of a still larger public. In his very first cyclic compositions done in crayon and tempera– "Creation of the Universe," "The Funeral," "The Deluge" and "Sylvan Music" (1903-1906)– the artist achieves finished symbolic expression. The composition, exquisite color range and precise bird's-eye perspective give profound meaning to the artist's tremulous images and visions: The plants come to life, the pine trees turn into fairy-tale images, and rocks and hills appear as demons with hypnotic eyes. All this is intended to glorify beauty and the eternal rejuvenation of the world. It is not only the magnificence of the symbols that are attractive and stirring but also the love of life and the ecstacy of living that emanate from the works. Ciurlionis did not stay away from cultural and public life. He often visited famous galleries to admire the great art of the past. When he learned about plans for holding the first Lithuanian art exhibition in Vilnius, he totally approved of the idea and contributed his works. What is more, he moved to Vilnius, settled down there and became one of the most active organizers of the cultural movement. However, the artist felt limited by the cultural life of the Vilnius of that period, and he left for St. Petersburg. He later returned to the Lithuanian capital but went back to St. Petersburg in the hopes of finding a more favorable atmosphere there. He took his paintings with him and showed them to Mstislav Dobuzhinsky and Alexander Benois and participated in exhibitions arranged by the members of the Mir Iskusstva[2] association. He continued to work diligently. Despite the concern and support of the St. Petersburg artists, Ciurlionis, who was exceptionally impractical and homesick, was unable to make a living in the capital of the Russian Empire. Exhausted by intense creative work and poverty, the artist was virtually broken by the time recognition was near at hand in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vilnius, Rigs and Paris. The years between 1907 and 1909 were Ciurlionis' most creatively prolific. He painted his most mature canvases with musical names– the series "Zodiacal Cycle," "Tales," fantasies and majestic compositions– in which he explored the problems of human existence and space. His landscape works– Sun Sonata, Spring Sonata, Grass Snake Sonata, Sonata of the Sea, Pyramid Sonata and Star Sonata– their lyrical metamorphosis and the inspired landscapes of southern Lithuania reveal a rebelliously dramatic tension, the fatal conflict of the elements and the victory of goodness. These pictures show how deeply sensitive the artist was to nature. It was precisely his all-encompassing vision, which embraced both man and space, that fomented his dissatisfaction with the traditional forms of painting and that prompted him to grasp the fleeting nature of life and the dynamism of artistic impressions. Elements of time, a clear comprehension of rhythmic features, the functions of color and space, and the predominance of curving lines ail combine to create a mood of musical harmony, the impression of a dialogue between the visual and the audible in Ciurlionis' pictures. His sonata, prelude and fugue paintings cause critics to argue about what– art or music– predominates and makes Ciurlionis' pictures unique. His pictures are not a direct projection of music on canvas but a blend of the painter's artistic imagination, musicality and picturesqueness of the images– a blend that enables viewers to perceive the picture and themselves in a way that is comprehensible to them. It was this musical quality of Ciurlionis' works that prompted Maxim Gorky to ask: "Doesn't romanticism have a place in realism? Does that mean that plasticity, rhythm, musicality and similar things have no place in realistic paintings? What I like about Ciurlionis is that he sets me thinking as a writer." A considerable part of Ciurlionis' legacy, especially his last works, is made up of separate contrasting pictures and entire series. In some paintings, far example, Rex, The Demon, The Angel and A Tale of a Castle, the artist delves deeply into or rises high above the realm of human existence. In other works, such as Friendship, A Tale, A Tale of Kings and Winter, he returns to the world of goodness where storybook cities, fantastic sacrificial altars, the Sun and other celestial bodies personify concrete natural elements characteristic of his native land or the creative powers. His original combination of fantasy, vision and poetic image shows that Ciurlionis breaks away from concrete earthly life only to experience the joy of returning to it again. The artist did not possess, and, hence, he never proclaimed, any definite esthetic philosophy. In short, the comprehension of man's place in the universe and in his epoch could be said to be Ciurlionis' dominant theme. According to painter Dobuzhinsky, Ciurlionis' art, which is based on life and the creative potential of people and enriched by the experience and ideas of other nations, "has far overstepped the boundary of national art," Ciurlionis' art is an expression of the interaction of Lithuanian, Russian and Polish cultures, which bring out and develop the national character of his creativity. There is no denying the links between Ciurlionis' art and the art trends of Western Europe, yet we see in his painting and in his music the sources which make him, above all, the spokesman of his own people. Ciurlionis used to say that the traditions of folk art were the "primary manifestation of creation." For him, however, folk art was not something to be emulated, but something that always aroused his admiration and attracted him, and he would go back to it time and again as though wishing to compare himself with it and draw on its richness. The paintings done when Ciurlionis was at his zenith contain another feature: an original comprehension and treatment of space. He creates the illusion of its expanses and evokes a sense of time that has no tangible limits. In light of the cosmic theories of the day, Ciurlionis' works– fantastic, mystical or abstract– could easily be taken for an illustration of these theories. Today, 75 years after the artist's death, we are discovering his great power of foresight, which brings him closer to our modern understanding of the world and puts him ahead of many contemporary artists who go no further than mere copying. In this sense, Ciurlionis' outlook may, without the least hesitation, be called "modern" because it embodies the depth and power of the thinker, philosopher and artist-something that has distinguished great artists throughout the ages. Like a luminary, Ciurlionis lit up the firmament of Lithuanian culture for an instant, but in that short time he managed to point out the direction that our art should take. Having touched on the eternal problems of existence, so vitally important to each individual and all of humankind, he does not remain an artist of national scale alone. Ciurlionis is known in Moscow, Leningrad, Berlin, Tokyo and Paris. Mis name has been given to cliffs in Franz Josef Land, an archipelago in the Barents Sea, a peak in the Pamir Mountains, and to streets and schools. __________________ [1] Considerable effort was made to locate the copyright holder as well as the author to obtain permission to reprint this article. Soviet Life discontinued publication at the beginning of the 1990's. Russian Life, which is the successor to Soviet Life does not hold copyright on this article. [back] [2] [Soviet Life footnote] Mir Iskusstva (World of Art)– a Russian art association (1898-1924) organized in St. Petersburg by artists Alexander Benois and Sergei Diaghilev. The association did much to influence the development of new art. [back]
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