ARTIST MIKALOJUS CIURLIONIS
the LIFE AND WORK of
Mikalojus Ciurlionis for a short thirty-six years, seemed to have lived several lives. Composer, artist, thinker, teacher, hypnotist... and miserable, locked in the walls of psychiatric clinic. Vulnerable, immersed in dreams, in deep depression, he left a deep imprint on Lithuanian culture.
He was born in 1875 in German-литовской family. His father was of peasant origin, the mother came from a family of evangelists, who fled from religious persecution in Germany. Father was fond of playing the organ, and Mikalojus from the age of six began sometimes to replace him as the organist during Church services. First the father taught him himself, but soon decided that the boy needed real teachers. A few years čiurlionis studied at the orchestral school of M. Oginski, then went to the Warsaw Music Institute and graduated with honors.
Ciurlionis Records of those years show that music was not his only passion. This young man, under the mask of calmness and humility hide a keen mind and warm heart, in the years of study at the same time was fond of Geology, chemistry, history, geometry, cultures, ancient civilizations, philosophy, languages (both dead and still existing), Eastern religions, geometry, physics, astronomy... an extremely wide horizons later became the basis of his musical, artistic and philosophical creativity.
After Warsaw čiurlionis was at the Leipzig Conservatory first as a student and then a teacher. In Leipzig, čiurlionis at the age of twenty-seven years of experiencing the first documented spiritual crisis.
Part of the creative heritage of čiurlionis began his journals are detailed, containing the author"s reflections about life, about his suffering and joys, of painful reflection and spiritual experience. They are preserved only partially, as his correspondence with his brother and friends. The texts of čiurlionis often full dark, minor tones, reflecting the cautious attitude of the author towards reality and uncertainty in the forces.
First depressive episode helped a lot. In Warsaw refused to play the best of his work, the teaching was hard, the future was seen as uncertain – despite the fact that he was twice offered a position of music Director of the quite profitable and respected... Their failure čiurlionis explained a bit unusual – he said that the music teacher must possess a pure and exalted soul, and his life marred by petty jealousy.
But his friends say otherwise – it seemed that in his presence they themselves have become better and cleaner, when it stops gossip and empty talk, and all seemed imbued with light feelings. Maybe it was a hypnotic gift of Ciurlionis? They say he possessed mystical powers, but did not attempt to demonstrate...
čiurlionis gives private music lessons, but it is all the stronger growing attraction to another means of expression – painting. In those years he didn"t know how to Express in music my feelings, but at the same time experienced a painful need to Express themselves and be understood.
čiurlionis began attending the art Studio.
1900-х years čiurlionis took part in the exhibitions, but constantly speaking of his modesty, was appointed incredibly high prices for their work... so nobody bought them. However, he gave his paintings to those who, he believed, they-настоящему liked. This attitude to money (čiurlionis despised trade) brought him to extreme poverty.
One day he got severe frostbite, resulting in severe pain because he had no money to buy gloves. Persistent malnutrition, lasting for years, caused severe problems with the intestines.
From-за of poverty, čiurlionis could not – and did not want to arrange a personal life.
From his letters it is known that the first long romantic relationship was destroyed not only by the desire of the girl"s father to throw her a better party, but the indecision of the artist. He feared that permanent financial difficulties will destroy the sublime, divine love and art.
However, nine years later he married the writer Sofia Kymantaite, which was so incredibly happy. They all loved the idea" литовского revival" that is generally among the Lithuanians did not cause much enthusiasm.
Soon after the wedding they went to Petersburg, where he met and I fear nothing, Lanceray, Bakst, Somov, and other eminent artists, who warmly supported and the čiurlionis and his work.
However, Benoit wrote that čiurlionis appeared in art in his time – his pale, dismal, amateurish painting was not understood neither by the audience nor by the critics.
Sofia returned to Lithuania. Ciurlionis attachment to his wife was manic, he could not imagine himself without it, in the moments of separation fell into a full of melancholy and helplessness. What-то time he tried to work, started a huge symbolist painting, but he didn"t have money for paint. After a while Sophia went back for it and took home.
čiurlionis was always a person with unstable mentality and no love, no brief period of fame, no public activities for the revival of Lithuanian culture (folklore, organization of creative communities) could not save him from depression, but after depression it is a severe mental disorder.
čiurlionis was in a mental hospital, he was forbidden to do the most important things – music and painting. Unable to stand, one day he escaped from the hospital into the woods – what was, barefoot, @- but got lost and was forced to return. After escaping from the artist inflammation of the lungs, followed by haemorrhage into the brain, April 10, 1911 he died.
ten years of creative activity, he created more than four hundred musical compositions and three hundred pictures, wrote poetry, experimented with photography. Deeply symbolic, subtle, full of light and celebration of the works of čiurlionis have become incredibly popular only after his death.
Text: Sofia Yegorova.
Source: https://kulturologia.EN/blogs/110319/42462/
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