Ars: časopis Ústavu Dejín Umenia Slovenskej Akadémie Vied (45.2012)

15. Aspasija: Sposchi sapni. Dsejiski tehlojumi. Riga 1909. Artistic
design. J. Zëgners. Photo: Private collection of Janis Krěslinš.

, (SDOSIS H’GUIÄS RlfiÄ-


16. J. Gulbis: Nemiera stundäs. Riga : A. Golts, 1907. Photo: Private
collection of Valdis Vilerušs.

Therefore I háve chosen not a lexicographical,
but a grammatical approach. An approach which
never can really succeed in capturing an artistic
language! The covers are, in some sense, the ulti-
mate ablative absolute. They consist of a noun or
pronoun signifying that what we see is truly a real
manifestation. The noun or pronoun is combined
with a participle which infuses verbal motion. Both
are grammatically independent of the main clause.
In our case, the cover itself is independent of the
text, but it does, nonetheless, express the time,
the occasion or the circumstance that the book as
a whole States.
Sole oriente. In the new world of the first decade
of the 20th Century Baltic, the book covers are like
the rising sun, omniprésent, but detached. But as we
view this sun above the vast expansés and the cov-
ers against the tumultuous first decade of the 20th
Century in the Baltic, we form an ability to remember
the future and explore the psychological dimension
of memory.





17. K. Skalbe: Semes duhmos. Riga : D. Zeltinš, 1906. Artistic design
K. Ceplitis. Photo: Private collection of Valdis Vilerušs.

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