THE ORIGIN OF LANDSCAPE IN LATVIAN TEXTILE ART. RŪDOLFS HEIMRĀTS’S SCHOOL

Abstract

The article provides insight into development processes related to professional education in Latvian textile art. Special attention was made to the textile artist Rūdolfs Heimrāts and his crucial role in the history of Latvian textile art. He was permanently leading the Textile art department at the State Academy of Arts of Latvian SSR for more than thirty years. Heimrāts established his original educational model based on a deep understanding of Latvian textile culture heritage. The new generation of artists educated by Heimrāts completely changed visual content and technical capabilities of textile artwork. It raised the Latvian textile art to an unprecedented level of artistic expression. Heimrāts’s unique personality, creative interests, and set goals influenced Latvian textile art development for several decades. Textile artists who had acquired education under the leadership of Rūdolfs Heimrāts created their special contribution to Latvian textile art known as Heimrāts’s School. One of the unifying features of Heimrāts’s School became the predominance of landscape theme in artists’ oeuvre. The article aims to analyse the phenomenon of Heimrāts’s personality, his educational method, and his contribution to the development of Latvian textile art. Special attention was paid to determine the circumstances that affected the topic selection of weavings. Research methods include the study of archival material and publications, formal analysis of the artwork, biographical analysis, interviews, historical research, and field notes.