Lithuania
Lithuania's history and geographical situation delayed the emergence of a national art. Long influenced by Poland and Russia, Lithuanian culture officially asserted itself in 1907, with the first exhibition of Lithuanian art. The event brought together key artists, including the first Lithuanian sculptor, Petras Rimša (1881-1961), whose work was inspired by patriotic realism. The country's first art gallery opens in Kaunas in 1921, and is renamed the MK Čiurlionis National Art Museum. Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1975-1911) is one of the great artistic figures of Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. A painter and composer, he delivered almost 300 canvases in a short space of time, imbued with dreaminess and symbolism. He is considered a precursor of abstract art.
Adomas Varnas. Lithuania's emerging cultural identity is marked by Adomas Varnas. Painter, photographer, collector and scenographer, he was born in 1879 and died a hundred years later in Chicago. After studying abroad, he founded the Union of Lithuanian Artists in 1920. In 1944, he moved to the United States, where he pursued a prolific career. The first period of his work was characterized by romantic portraits. After independence, he turned to chromatic research and landscapes. Varnas remained faithful to his own style, unaffected by any of the trends that crossed his long career. This trend can be seen throughout the Baltic States.
Ars Group. The dynamism of the 1930s gave rise to the first group of Lithuanian avant-gardists: Ars. Its members, all trained in Paris, turned away from classicism to explore more expressive processes, but also to propose a revival of folk art. Ars brought together painters Antanas Gudaitis, Antanas Samuolis, Juozas Mikėnas and Viktoras Vizgirda.
Their influence endures in Lithuania. However, the Second World War and the long Soviet occupation marked a period of repression. Themes and genres were imposed: history and domestic scenes took center stage. It wasn't until the "thaw" after 1956 that freedom returned. The Palace of Art Exhibitions opened in Vilnius in 1967, renamed Centre d'art contemporain. In 1969, the Association of Art Photographers was founded, along with a school that continues to train talent in photojournalism and art photography.
1990s. The real turning point came at the end of the 1980s. Suddenly, there was an explosion of non-conformism. A particularly rich and heterogeneous scene expressed itself freely: figurative, abstract, naive and other types of painting coexisted. The first Lithuanian abstract painters were Kazimiera Zimblytė and Cukermanas.
Cukermanas, born in 1953, embodies the return to non-figurative aesthetics. His canvases alternate between monochromatism and polychromy, following the example of Latvian-born American artist Mark Rothko. Her paintings transcribe rhythmic movements, playing with matter and relief in an organic way. Her contemporary Jurate Mykolaityte, born in 1954, studied at the Vilnius Institute of Fine Arts. An explorer of the visual world, she focuses on retranscribing the world of dreams and the unconscious.
In Vilnius, the National Museum or Nacionalinė dailės galerija brings together modern and contemporary art.
Contemporary art. The break with the Soviet Union changes the situation. Artistic initiatives multiply. In 1992, the state opened the Center for Contemporary Art (CAC). In 1993, the Soros Center for Contemporary Art (SCCA, later integrated into the National Gallery of Art) was founded in Vilnius by American philanthropist George Soros. His influence was decisive for the new generation. The financier supports contemporary art projects and ensures their international dissemination. Among the many movements of the late 20th century, "post-Ars" was formed in Kaunas in 1989 around photographer Gintaras Zinkevičius. Their actions on industrial sites drew attention to social and existential issues.
Among other Vilnius groups, Žalias lapas (Green Leaf), founded in 1988, takes up the principles of arte povera, Fluxus and from Joseph Beuys, the painters of the neo-expressionist "24 artists". Painting continues to be favored by artists such as Jonas Gasiūnas, one of Lithuania's most influential.
2009 was a memorable year for Lithuania: Vilnius was elected European Capital of Culture, and the first edition of Art Vilnius, the first international art fair in the Baltic States, took place. In 2023, it was Kaunas' turn to win the title of European Capital of Culture.
Estonia
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Estonian artists left to study in St Petersburg, Düsseldorf, Munich, Paris and Geneva. Young Estonian art went through several periods: Expressionism around 1915, Post-Impressionism in the 1930s, then forced Socialist Realism in the 1940s and 1950s. At the end of the 1960s, the younger generation countered these constraints with American-style pop art. America was seen as an ideal of freedom.
The Estonian folk movement is epitomized by Kristjan Raud (1865-1943). In 1935, he painted his Sacrifice, which crystallized the devastation of the Baltic states and the bright future to which they aspired. Attached to tradition, Raud remained impervious to European pictorial innovations. Trained in St. Petersburg, Germany and Paris, he continued in his national vein, which had little success on the foreign market.
Avant-garde. In the 1920s, the Estonian Artists Group brought together Märt Laarmann, Arnold Akberg, Henrik Olvi, Jaan Vahtra and Eduard Ole. All were following in the footsteps of the initiators of Western revolutionary currents.
Between 1918 and 1940, the great figures of Estonian art trained or taught at the Pallas Art College in Tartu: painters Konrad Mägi, Ado Vabbe and Nikolai Triik, sculptor Anton Starkopf and Estonia's golden boy, Eduard Wiiralt. Born in 1898, Wiiralt divided his time between Estonia, Germany, Sweden and Paris. His works abound in expressionist, morbid and grotesque details. His best-known etching, L'Enfer (Hell), is based on ancient techniques. The work is preserved in the Estonian Art Museum (or Eesti Kunstimuuseum). He died in Paris in 1954.
1960s. After repression, Estonian art regained vigor in the 1960s. Under the eye of the KGB, the ANK'64 and SOUP'69 groups were born, influenced by pop art. These artists sought to vary their means of expression. Leonhard Lapin, Andres Tolts, Ando Keskküla and Ülevi Eljand, and Sirje Runge all experimented. One of the most influential artists of Estonian anti-conformism was Ülo Sooster (1924-1970). Deported to Siberia, Sooster experienced the horrors of the prison camps. Released in 1956, he remained in Moscow, where he worked in the circle of independent Russian artists gathered around Ilya Kabakov.
1990s. Significantly, the hierarchy of genres is overturned. Painting was no longer the royal road. Photography, installations, performance art and video were taking their place. At Tallin's Museum of Photography (fotomuuseum), one hundred and fifty years of Estonian photographic history are retraced through exceptional images and equipment. 1995 saw the birth of the Saaremaa International Biennial, the first of its kind in the country.
21st century. Opened in Tallinn in 2006, the KUMU (or Kunsti Muuseum, Art Museum) houses Estonian art rescued from the bombings of March 9, 1944. Both a national museum and a contemporary art gallery, it covers local heritage as well as current artistic events. Just a stone's throw from KUMU, the Kadriorg Palace and Art Museum presents Western European and Russian painting, sculpture and applied arts from the 16th to 20th centuries. In 2024, Tartu will be the European Capital of Culture, and this will involve not only the city but the whole region in numerous artistic events.
Latvia
Folk art. The landscapes of Vilhelms Purvitis (1872-1945) have become part of the national imagination. His depictions of melting snow and spring floods even made him known abroad. Founder of the Latvian Academy of Arts in Rīga, he pursued a career as an exhibition curator. His works met with a tragic fate, most of them being destroyed during his exile.
A visit to Rīga's Arsenāls-Fine Arts Museum is an excellent way to discover Baltic and Latvian art of past centuries.
Modernism. The Rīga Group of Artists brings together the Latvian avant-garde: Romans Suta and his wife Alexandra Belcova, Oto Skulme and his wife, sculptor Marta Skulme, Janis Liepins, Leo Svemps, Niklāvs Strunke and Valdemārs Tone. Turned towards modernism, they experimented with various aesthetic trends. After the annexation of Latvia in 1944, socialist realism muzzled the arts. For fifty years, however, modernism continued to exist in private collections. It wasn't until 1984, with the legendary exhibition "Daba. Vide. Cilvēks" ("Nature. Environment. Individuals"), held in a church.
Graphic arts were less censored than painting in the 1970s and 1980s. Freedom-loving artists became great poster artists. Latvian artists Ilmārs Blumbergs, Juris Dimiters, Laimonis Senbergs and Gunārs Zemgals won top international competitions.
Nowadays. Since 1988, the artist-run NOASS Art Center has brought together all the living arts. It has been home to such great names as Bill Viola. A number of Latvian contemporary artists are successfully exporting their work. Born in 1974, Sergejs Djomins became the first Latvian to exhibit at London's Saatchi Gallery.
In 2014, Latvia organizes its first Blank Canvas Street Art Festival. On this occasion, the residents of Rīga were able to offer their walls to the invited artists. Despite the standards imposed, the population discovered a little-known art form in this region. Exhibition spaces are opening at the request of art professionals. In the Old Town, the Riga Art Space showcases established artists and up-and-coming talents, as do the Kim? contemporary art center and the Zuzeum.