Oto Skulme (1889-1967)

Skulme was born into a lime burner’s family. He studied at Janis Rozentāls’ art classes (1906–1907), Stanislav Zhukovsky’s art classes in Moscow and simultaneously Stroganov’s School of Art (1907–1908). In 1909 Skulme moved to St Petersburg and enrolled at Baron Stiglitz’s Central School of Technical Drawing; he graduated form the Class of Set Painting in 1914. During the military service Skulme studied at the Irkutsk Military College and later fought at the Galicia front. After his demobilisation from the Tsarist army in 1918, Skulme returned to Riga where he was drafted into the Red Army.

The main area of Skulme’s art was set design. Between 1926 and 1947 the artist worked with the director Eduards Smiļģis at the Theatre of Art (Dailes) on over 250 productions. During the Soviet regime Skulme was the Rector of the Academy of Art of Latvian SSR (1940–1941, 1944–1961). Alongside his teaching work, Skulme showed his loyalty to the Communist authorities with politically engaged paintings.