Ciurlionis
Jan. 22nd, 2005 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avreliaYou probably don’t know, but a while back I wrote a story of my one true love – the one that is not going to end happily, and I am glad that it isn’t. Here it is if you are curious.
This is another story about my personal relationship with an artist. It lacks the intensity of the first one, but it warms me as a good friendship. Of course, the artist in question is long dead, but when was it the obstacle for being friends? He is also not very well known outside of Lithuania and former USSR republics, which is a pity.
Avrelia presents Ciurlionis, a Lithuanian artist and composer, who lights up my mood, even when he doesn’t plan to.
Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis [chu:rlyonis] was born on September 22 (new style), 1875, in Varena, Lithuania, in what was then the Kaunas province of the Russian Empire. In 1878 the family moved to Druskininkai, a resort town in the Gardinas province.
If you are interested in a detailed biography you can see it here, because I prefer not to repost, but to tell about my personal relationship with him.
Saying that I had a personal relationship with an artist who lived a century ago invite a reasonable question about my sanity. So, I have to elaborate that I didn’t see him or talked to him in any form. Yet, I still consider my connection to his art, my love of it, my thoughts and feelings raised by it to be my personal relationship with an artist.
Here is how it happened. In the august 1991 I was on a school trip to Lithuania – then still a part of USSR, but not for long. I felt in this kind of affection with Lithuania as whole – for its beautiful hills and forests, for its strange history, and for something in the air and culture that I cannot describe, but find immensely attractive. Neither Latvia, nor Estonia hasn’t left such an impression on me.
One day we were in Druskininkai – a resort town, the birthplace of Ciurlionis. We visited his house, preserved and turned into a museum; we listened to his music; we walked around a lot. But I rarely can connect this much through music, and I don’t remember anything about it. I loved the surrounding forest – it was bright and cheerful, and I saw a real hare hopping around – all reasons enough to love the place. The artist? Not really.
The next day, however, we went to Kaunas – the second-largest Lithuanian city after Vilnius, the capital. And in Kaunas we visited the museum of Ciurlionis art – where most of his artwork is on display. Then and there I’ve become enchanted.
You won’t have another opportunity to see his artwork unless you visit this museum: Ciurlionis created his works in pastel, which gave them an ethereal quality of something between dream and reality and made them physically too fragile to move anywhere. There are reproductions – of the superior quality that are moved from exhibition to exhibition. I had an opportunity to see both, and, the originals are better. ;)
One of the most important qualities of Ciurlionis art is that his pastels are musical, and his music is… but I don’t really know. This is the link to some fragments on-line: listen and tell me.
I am here to present the visual art, which is the one I love.
The Truth - Moths and the flickering candlelight.
Stillness (one of my favourites) Is it a sleeping giant or a hill looking into the sea?
The Forest
He liked to create cycles of work – united by the same theme, developing it in a different way. Being a musician, he created sonatas. So, I look at them, love them, and feel that I am half-blind, because I don't get the musical part of it. Still, they wake up something that ties up my impressions of Lithuania, and of the world, and dreams and fairytales all together. They can be read so many times in so many different ways.
Sonata of the Sun. Allegro.
Sonata of the Sun. Andante.
Sonata of the Sun. Scherzo.
Sonata of the Sun. Finale.
Sonata of the Sea. Allegro.
Sonata of the Sea. Andante.
Sonata of the Sea. Finale. You can see the letters “M” and “K” of his given name written on the tide, ready to disappear.
you can see more here and here.
I am choosing the easy way and let him speak for himself. Enjoy!
This is another story about my personal relationship with an artist. It lacks the intensity of the first one, but it warms me as a good friendship. Of course, the artist in question is long dead, but when was it the obstacle for being friends? He is also not very well known outside of Lithuania and former USSR republics, which is a pity.
Avrelia presents Ciurlionis, a Lithuanian artist and composer, who lights up my mood, even when he doesn’t plan to.
Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis [chu:rlyonis] was born on September 22 (new style), 1875, in Varena, Lithuania, in what was then the Kaunas province of the Russian Empire. In 1878 the family moved to Druskininkai, a resort town in the Gardinas province.
If you are interested in a detailed biography you can see it here, because I prefer not to repost, but to tell about my personal relationship with him.
Saying that I had a personal relationship with an artist who lived a century ago invite a reasonable question about my sanity. So, I have to elaborate that I didn’t see him or talked to him in any form. Yet, I still consider my connection to his art, my love of it, my thoughts and feelings raised by it to be my personal relationship with an artist.
Here is how it happened. In the august 1991 I was on a school trip to Lithuania – then still a part of USSR, but not for long. I felt in this kind of affection with Lithuania as whole – for its beautiful hills and forests, for its strange history, and for something in the air and culture that I cannot describe, but find immensely attractive. Neither Latvia, nor Estonia hasn’t left such an impression on me.
One day we were in Druskininkai – a resort town, the birthplace of Ciurlionis. We visited his house, preserved and turned into a museum; we listened to his music; we walked around a lot. But I rarely can connect this much through music, and I don’t remember anything about it. I loved the surrounding forest – it was bright and cheerful, and I saw a real hare hopping around – all reasons enough to love the place. The artist? Not really.
The next day, however, we went to Kaunas – the second-largest Lithuanian city after Vilnius, the capital. And in Kaunas we visited the museum of Ciurlionis art – where most of his artwork is on display. Then and there I’ve become enchanted.
You won’t have another opportunity to see his artwork unless you visit this museum: Ciurlionis created his works in pastel, which gave them an ethereal quality of something between dream and reality and made them physically too fragile to move anywhere. There are reproductions – of the superior quality that are moved from exhibition to exhibition. I had an opportunity to see both, and, the originals are better. ;)
One of the most important qualities of Ciurlionis art is that his pastels are musical, and his music is… but I don’t really know. This is the link to some fragments on-line: listen and tell me.
I am here to present the visual art, which is the one I love.
The Truth - Moths and the flickering candlelight.
Stillness (one of my favourites) Is it a sleeping giant or a hill looking into the sea?
The Forest
He liked to create cycles of work – united by the same theme, developing it in a different way. Being a musician, he created sonatas. So, I look at them, love them, and feel that I am half-blind, because I don't get the musical part of it. Still, they wake up something that ties up my impressions of Lithuania, and of the world, and dreams and fairytales all together. They can be read so many times in so many different ways.
Sonata of the Sun. Allegro.
Sonata of the Sun. Andante.
Sonata of the Sun. Scherzo.
Sonata of the Sun. Finale.
Sonata of the Sea. Allegro.
Sonata of the Sea. Andante.
Sonata of the Sea. Finale. You can see the letters “M” and “K” of his given name written on the tide, ready to disappear.
you can see more here and here.
I am choosing the easy way and let him speak for himself. Enjoy!
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-22 04:34 pm (UTC)You used to have the Allegro as your LJ background image, right?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-22 04:43 pm (UTC)I also had an icon made from this one (http://neris.mii.lt/art/ciurlionis/p24.html).
I am happy I passed the love. (btw, you may note the date of that school trip: it was a special time)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 02:43 pm (UTC)Indeed it was. I have very special memories of it, actually. I'm considering writing it up in LJ. You see, we have a Tchaikovsky festival in our town and this reminded me how I associate Swan Lake with the coup in 1991.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 03:33 pm (UTC)We spent it in Latvia (it was the second part of the trip, a week after events of this post,) and half of the parents were worried sick, another half was happy that we are not in Moscow. We had our own fun: deep in the noght we ran away to walk at the seaside, and had to wait to cross the road till tanks pass...
Fifteen years? Brains just worked in a weird mode.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-22 07:47 pm (UTC)I've always wanted to visit Lithuania. I have relations there, so maybe one of these days I'll get to go.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 07:26 am (UTC)Probably you can find some in the Internet.
I've always wanted to visit Lithuania. I have relations there, so maybe one of these days I'll get to go.
Really? That's so cool! And Lithuania is very beautiful, you sould definitely go there there is resorts and castles, and deep rural areas, and amazing cities, and forsests, and stuff. ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 07:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 03:14 am (UTC)I love the words sonata of the sun and sonata of the sea - the pictures really seem to capture that feeling of looking at music...
no subject
Date: 2005-01-23 07:21 am (UTC)