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JG 272

ARTS AND LETTERS

• In last year’s fall issue (JG270), poet and literary critic Kārlis Vērdiņš characterized Baiba Bičole’s poetry as grounded in nature, yet fully open to the rich artificialities of city life. Her short poems are like shards, he wrote, which, taken together, reveal the wholeness of her poetic personality. Here Bičole presents a set of 22 such “shards” – evidence of the coherence of her vision.

• Imants Auziņš wonders poetically whether confusion over all the little buttons to push in calling up a friend on a telephone-TV-internet connection is a sign of old age.

• We feature three short stories. Laima Kalniņa explores a child’s fantasy challenged by home improvement, Uģis Jansons writes about a surreal case of aversion to onions, and Ieva Dāboliņa recollects a dear old family friend, “Cīlīte”.

• In his continued biography of Laimonis Mieriņš, Māris Brancis portrays the artist as a demanding, respected teacher with the Commercial Design Department of Leeds College of Art in England.

• We feature renderings of paintings by Laimonis Eglītis and Brencis Sils and the installation art of Artūrs Virtmanis. Art historian Dace Lamberga describes an exhibit of “Latvian Art in Exile” planned by the Latvian National Museum of Art, and artist / art critic Linda Treija introduces Sils and Virtmanis.

• Helēna Gintere describes the career and works of Ēriks Ešenvalds, one of a number of Latvian composers who have achieved contemporary world-wide recognition.

• The cover design is by Linda Treija.

 

LITERARY COMMENT

• In Ingmāra Balode’s appreciation of a newly published collection of poetry by Velga Krile (1945-1991), the poet is described as an expressionist, comparable to Ojārs Vācietis and Aleksandrs Čaks.

• Līvija Baumane characterizes poet Elza Ķezbere (1911-2011) as an imagist, given to thematically descriptive nuance and musicality.

• In the current installment of Una Alksne’s monograph on Fricis Bārda (1880-1919) we see the poet dwelling on priestly aestheticism and the Orpheus myth.

 

HISTORY, REMINISCENCE, ACTUALITIES

• In icy rain before dawn on December 5, 1963, “Constitution Day” in the USSR, 22-year old Bruno Javoišs climbed a 300-ft. tall radio tower in downtown Rīga, cut down the flag of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic and replaced it with the flag of independent Latvia. Captured, beaten and ultimately sentenced to 7 years in prison, he now rejoices that the Latvian flag flew free for two days before the authorities found someone fit to scale the icy tower and take it down.

• Art historian and recently appointed president of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Ojārs Spārītis, tells of a 1621 visit to Rīga by Gustav II August of Sweden, and describes some of the artistic monuments in Rīga that depict the Swedish King. We also include three poems by Spārītis, which reveal a lyrical bent.

• Juris Šlesers ponders the “Intrusion into the Pantheon” committed by Vera Kacēna in her autobiographical/historical novel Kājāmgājējs karā (A Pedestrian at War).

• In a Few Words, contributing editors Vita Gaiķe, Māris Brancis and Rolfs Ekmanis  give the usual concise, panoramic and detailed overview of news and actualities significant to Latvians everywhere..

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BOOK REVIEWS

• Viktors Hausmanis. Veronika Janelsiņa rakstos un darbos (Veronika Janelsiņa in Word and Deed) – reviewed by Rasma Birzgale, Juris Silenieks and Andra Silapētere

• Vladimirs Kaijaks. Koka kāja, Kapu māja (Wooden Leg, Graveyard Home), a memoir – Laimonis Purs

• Laimonas Briedis. Vilnius: City of Strangers – Indra Ekmane

• Two poetry collections – Anna Foma’s Jaunā Vāgnera klusēšana (The Silence of Young Wagner), and Ingmāra Balode’s alba – Katrīna Kuduma

• Comments on literary critic Inta Ezergaile by Aina Siksna

• Journal of Baltic Studies 43/3 (September 2012) – Gundars Ķeniņš Kings.

 

(jž)