Riga and Tallinn Meet: 20th Century Painted Porcelain Exhibition at Riga Porcelain Museum

Exhibition Riga and Tallinn meet. Painted porcelain. 20th century 60s and 70s is dedicated to a peculiar phenomenon in the history of porcelain art and industry – the production of Riga porcelain, which was decorated in Estonia.

Riga porcelain is well-known and popular in Latvia, but the 20th century porcelain is less well-known. the history page of the second half about the paintings that were made on Riga porcelain in Estonia, Art Products Production Combine (KFK – Art product combines of the Art Fund) in the porcelain painting workshop.

The Art Products Production Combine in Estonia was subordinate to the Art Fund and operated as a production association. Under the legal umbrella of the combine were united several, variously specialized historical art and craft workshops and production plants, which were nationalized and subordinated under the conditions of the Soviet occupation according to the principles of the economic organization of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). One of the structural units of the combine was the Porcelain Painting Workshop, created on the basis of the nationalized Nikolai Langebraun Porcelain Factory (founded in 1928).

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Langebraun porcelain factory did not produce original shapes, but decorated designs borrowed from Western Europe. The production made it possible to meet the needs of consumers – tea and coffee sets, vases, ashtrays, cans, spice containers, candlesticks and much more were decorated. The same principle was used during the occupation as well. In Estonia, there were no factories that made porcelain molds, so semi-finished or undecorated dishes were imported from other factories of the USSR – the closest one was in Riga, so “white” dishes were supplied from the Riga Porcelain Factory, the Riga Porcelain and Faience Factory, after their merger in 1960. years – Riga Porcelain and Faience Factory and later – Riga Porcelain Factory. Of course, Riga was not the only one – dishes were also brought from other USSR porcelain factories.

in the latest exhibition of the Riga Porcelain Museum Riga and Tallinn meet. Painted porcelain. 20th century 60s and 70s the focus is on the two decades mentioned above – the design of the 60s and 70s. Although the decorations of the Estonian workshop can be found both on the 20th century. Forms of the 40s, borrowed from the times of the First Free State, as well as productions of the 80s. It is characteristic that the decorated dishes in Estonia could be assembled independently of their original set, for example, the tableware could be assembled from Riga dishes of different shapes and supplemented, for example, with elements from the Ukrainian porcelain industry, etc.

However, the unifying element is the aesthetics of the painting. Large-scale industry imposes strict conditions on what the decoration should be – it is not for nothing that the decal technology was developed for the decoration of Riga porcelain, which allowed decoration to be carried out quickly, in large quantities and with uniform quality of execution. On the other hand, the principle of the workshop in Estonia made it possible to develop the individual handwriting of the artists, to make the decoration more painterly and artistically valuable. Although it is clear that the task of the Porcelain Painting Workshop was to create decorations for products intended for mass consumption, the decors were repeated and performed both by the authors themselves and by artist-performers according to the samples created by the authors, but it is the human scale and working principle that determined the difference. , aesthetics unique to Estonia.

The exhibition is the first approach to the theme, which is opened from the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (ETDM – Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design) sides of the stock. It is the beginning of further, in-depth research and cooperation between cultural institutions of Latvia and Estonia, which will allow us to learn about the heritage of industrial culture that is kept in the personal possessions of the inhabitants of Latvia and Estonia, to discover parallels that have not yet been noticed, to more clearly mark the authors and to more accurately attribute objects in the collections of Latvian and Estonian museums. .

Exhibition Riga and Tallinn meet. Painted porcelain. 20th century 60s and 70s It is on display at the Riga Porcelain Museum from December 15 to February 11 of the following year.

2023-12-08 10:00:58
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