AUCTION
Saturday, May 28, 2022, at 12.00
At the premises of Rietumu Capital Center, Vesetas Street 7, Riga, LV-1013
The auction will be held in person, online bidding, telephone bidding, as well as missing bidding will be available from 5.05.2022.
Oil painting Still life by Oto Skulme 1925. Canvas, oil. 72x60 cm
In 1923, the artist painted in different ways without much prejudice. Within the second stage of Cubism, the arrangement of laconic geometric, almost object-free forms in Otto Skulme's cubism is considered to be the extreme frontier of the search for simplification of form, followed by a natural turn to realism. Along with a convincing search for Cubism, however, Otto Skulme does not deviate from the realistic trend, and until the mid-1920s, the two trends in his work developed in parallel.
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.