Čiurlionio orientalizmo metamorfozės

LTŠioje monografijoje remiantis Čiurlionio dailės stilistinių bruožų analize parodoma, kokį stiprų poveikį formuojantis brandžiam „sonatinio“ periodo tapybos stiliui, erdvinės perspektyvos principams, požiūriui į pasaulį iš „paukščio skrydžio“ aukštumų, žmogaus vientisumo su gamta suvokimui, neįprastiems perspektyviniams sprendimams, asimetriškam komponavimui, jautriems koloritiniams sprendimams ir kitų charakteringiausių kūrybos bruožų tapsmui turėjo lietuvių dailininko pažintis su Rytų Azijos dailės tradicijomis, kuri padėjo sukurti savitą muzikalios sonatinės tapybos stilių. Knygos adresatas – profesionalioji akademinė auditorija ir visuomeninė aplinka, kūrybinė inteligentija, menininkai. Leidinys turėtų būti naudingas aukštųjų mokyklų dėstytojams, studentams, kultūros darbuotojams, visiems, besidomintiems aktualiomis kultūrologijos, meno istorijos, kūrybos teorijos, euristikos, estetikos, meno filosofijos ir meno psichologijos problemomis. [Leidėjo anotacija]

ENA genuine recognition of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis’ (1875-1911) art, the Lithuanian painter and composer, is impossible without researching the mythological symbolism, art aesthetics, and artistic traditions of the great Eastern civilisations. Therefore, this concise study based on the principles of comparative methodology discusses the connections between the paintings of all three main stages of the artist’s pictorial evolution and the different art traditions of Eastern countries. The main focus will be on the comparative analysis of Čiurlionis’ sonata painting phase and East Asian traditional painting, prioritising the famous landscape painting. During the research, similarities and differences in solving the problems of his worldview, thinking, perspective, compositional, artistic space, artistic time, plastic, colour and colour palette will be highlighted. Based on the iconographic and stylistic analysis of Čiurlionis’ aesthetic views and his paintings, the argument still continues that significant impact on the formation of a mature musical painting style of the sonata period and in solving the problems of the interaction of painting and musical language was acquired by his acquaintance with the traditions of East Asian painting, which helped the artist to create a unique style of “musical painting”. Probably, Čiurlionis’ unique intuition and insight can explain his ability through his knowledge and study of the compositional, spatial, and linear structures in Japanese classical engravings to reveal the achievements of much more sophisticated Chinese landscape painting and use them creatively in magnificent works of his late sonata period. In this respect, Čiurlionis, along with P. Klee, was one of the first representatives of the Western art tradition not only to realise the unique aesthetic value of Chinese landscape painting but also to use its principles to implement his “musical painting” idea creatively.Čiurlionis was a personality of universal interest who was surprisingly receptive to various ideas and innovations, whose volatile imagination and cultivated intuition quickly “captured” aesthetic, artistic achievements, and socially relevant ideas of civilised Eastern worlds that were invisible to others. We cannot find many other great masters of the art who are so open to various layers of the culture of Eastern civilisations and, at the same time, have not grown so profoundly from the colours and intonations of folk songs of their rain-washed Lithuanian landscape. It is no coincidence that he has become a particular symbol of Lithuanian identity for artists of later generations, an unattainable ideal on which Lithuanian artists of later generations will constantly focus. Some studies by Viacheslav Ivanov, Valerian Čiudovsky, and Ichiro Kato dedicated to Čiurlionis’ work ascertain the connections of the Lithuanian artist’s work with the art traditions of various Eastern nations, list the symbols and iconographic elements of his paintings borrowed from Egypt, Mesopotamian, Indian, Japanese civilised worlds often without a more thorough comparative analysis of formal means of artistic expression and stylistic features. In fact, it is usually a general reflection of the undoubted influence of images from the Middle Eastern, Indian, biblical and, for example, Hokusai or other Japanese woodblock carvings. However, only Aleksis Rannit and Antanas Andrijauskas’ texts address the more critical problem of the relationship between Čiurlionis and the great traditions of Chinese landscape painting, which has been outside academic art research for a long time.In Čiurlionis’ letters, paintings and testimonies of his contemporaries, we find many allusions to different worlds of Eastern and other non-European civilisations. There is nothing remarkable here because Orientalism and Weltanschauung universalism were integral to his worldview and strongly influenced aesthetic, artistic tastes, and creativity. His closest friends and family members testified for Čiurlionis’ attention to the traditions of religion, philosophy and art of non-European nations, his immersion in theosophical visions of cosmic universalism, and his passion for the ideas of Orientalism. Józef Markiewicz, the artist’s friend, points out that after returning from Leipzig, Čiurlionis read a lot and that “one area emerged from this flow of reading – Persian, Egyptian, and finally Indian philosophy”. Jan Brzeziński, the other friend from his studies at the Warsaw School of Art, stated that “Čiurlionis was particularly interested in the world of Indian and Egyptian philosophy”. The friend was also supported by the artist’s brother Stasys Čiurlionis, who, speaking about Orientalist influences, noted that “he began to study the religious works of ancient Indian philosophy in this field, read the works of Nal and Damayanti, Ramayana, the legend of Krishna, and later Rabindranath Tagore”. [...]. [From the publication]

• Filosofija / Philosophy
• Menotyra / Arts