Musical paintings : life and work of M.K. Čiurlionis (1875-1911)

LTKnygos pagrindu tapo prieš dvidešimt penkis metus dr. Genovaitės Kazokienės Australijoje apginta mokslinė menotyros disertacija, kurioje buvo nagrinėjama muzikinio mąstymo įtaka Čiurlionio tapyboje. 1982 m. autorės išeities taškas ir tyrimo būdas - nagrinėti Čiurlionio tapybą, remiantis muzikinio mąstymo metodika - atrodė labai novatoriškas ir netradicinis, o šiandien, kai Čiurlionio paveikslai ir muzikos kūriniai jau laisvai prieinami ir detaliai analizuojami – ne mažiau aktualus. Gausiai M. K. Čiurlionio dailės darbais iliustruotoje 280 puslapių knygoje autorė analizuoja, kaip paveiksle ar paveikslų cikluose atsispindi muzikinis menininko mąstymas, įdomiai ir plačiai diskutuoja daugelį Čiurlionio meno gerbėjų intriguojančiu klausimu – apie kūriniuose sutinkamų simbolių ir metaforų prasmę, atskiru išsamiu skyriumi atskleidžia filosofinį ir kultūrinį Čiurlionio epochos foną, formavusį menininko mąstymą ir meninį braižą.Reikšminiai žodžiai: Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis; Simbolizmas; Muzikinė struktūra vaizduojamajame mene; Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis; Symbolism; Musical construction in the visual arts; Čiurlionis; Čiurlionio tapyba; XIX- XX a. sandūros tapyba; Muzika tapyboje.

ENGenovaitė Kazokas completed her Master of Arts Thesis on Lithuanian composer, painter and poet Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875—1911) at the University of Sydney in 1982. Čiurlionis, at that time a hardly known figure in the world of arts outside of Lithuania and the Soviet Union, is a unique figure in the history of European art. At the turn of the twentieth century numerous artists tried their hand in various artistic media - composer Arnold Schoenberg, who also painted, and painter Vasily Kandinsky, who played cello and was an ardent music lover, being just two well known examples. However, only Čiurlionis was equally creative and inventive in both music and painting. At the time when modern stylistic paths were being developed in the cultural capitals of Europe, Čiurlionis produced groundbreaking works in both music and painting, and only his premature death and Lithuania's isolation at the time prevented him from becoming an internationally influential figure. Even though Čiurlionis was creative as a composer for only a decade, and as a painter for only six years, stylistic progress of his musical compositions was awesome, spanning archetypical romanticist forms and genres, traditional melodic and harmonic language, to newest avant-guard tendencies of the age, including passages into atonal music, protoserial technique, modal and polytonal harmonies, octatonic and pentatonic modes, and experimental cyclic structures based on rows. As a painter he was equally, if not more, progressive, and is mentioned among the forerunners of numerous avant-guard tendencies of the time. His paintings contain elements of abstract, surrealist, fauvist, and expressionist art.In preparation of the text of the thesis for this publication, the structure and language was not altered in any way, in order to keep it the way the author intended. The only editing has been made to adapt translations of the titles of the paintings to currently approved tradition in order to avoid additional confusion in Čiurlionis research. When Genovaitė Kazokas wrote her thesis, there was very little literature on Čiurlionis in English, and various translations of the titles of the same paintings were circulating, causing some misunderstanding among Čiurlionis researchers. [...] All titles and some slight alterations of dates of paintings in this book were edited in accordance with the aforementioned catalogue. In addition, the most recent research of Čiurlionis' paintings has brought out some new definite details about sequence and structure of some of the cyclic works of the artist. These findings are discussed in editor's footnotes within the text. [...]. [text from editor's note]

• Muzikologija / Musicology
• Menotyra / Arts