Applied and decorative arts
The collection of applied and decorative arts includes porcelain, ceramic, silver and glass objects, as well as textile art and various industrial design objects. This is one of the most extensive parts of the Zuzāns Collection in numbers and stands out among others due to the great formal and functional diversity of the featured objects as well as the wide range of materials. A significant part of the collection consists of fine-art and industrial porcelain objects produced in Europe and Asia and dating from the 18th century to the present day.
The core of the collection is Latvian art porcelain from the interwar period, produced by Baltars, Burtnieks and Ripors porcelain painting workshops, as well as J. C. Jessen Porcelain Factory and M. S. Kuznetsov JCS Porcelain, Faience and Clay Products Factory. For these art porcelain objects, their artistic value dominates over functionality. Objects of different shapes, such as plates, urns and dinner sets, were painted after sketches by prominent Latvian artists. Romans Suta, Aleksandra Beļcova, Sigismunds Vidbergs, Niklāvs Strunke, Ansis Cīrulis are but a few of the artists who have contributed to developing the identity of Latvian decorative arts.
The collection of porcelain, faience and ceramic objects produced by the Kuznetsov porcelain factories is worthy of a special mention. In the 1800s, the Kuznetsov Porcelain Factory in Riga was one of thirteen factories owned by the Kuznetsov family in the Russian Empire. The Zuzāns Collection holds objects produced by 11 of these factories; moreover, each of these factories is represented with examples that demonstrate its unique style. The factory in Riga is made significant by the fact that it was the only one carrying the Kuznetsov name in the interwar years, while the rest of the factories owned by the Kuznetsov family were nationalised in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian revolution. While the artists who designed the shape and décor of the 1800s production largely remained anonymous, the objects produced in Latvia during the interwar period represent a new generation of talented designers and porcelain-painters. Many of the porcelain-painters developed their own individual technique and style; for instance, intricate floral compositions featuring curved lines and paisley patterns were the trademark style of Olga Katenyova.
The collection of Russian interwar porcelain is also valuable and historically significant. The propaganda porcelain, produced and designed between the 1917 revolution and World War II, is a fragile memento of the tumultuous times when the new state was emerging; it reflects the slogans and ideals of the Communist revolution. Conforming to the demands of the Soviet power, talented Russian porcelain artists, trained back in the Tsarist days, now focused on new subjects and motifs referencing Communist propaganda. The radical and geometry-orientated Suprematism, seemingly an embodiment of the scientific and industrial ideals of the Russian Revolution, is also associated with this period. The Soviet propaganda porcelain continues to attract art collectors’ interest as a unique example of historical forms of propaganda.
The collection of silver objects is likewise an important part of the decorative and applied arts collection. It includes Russian and European-produced items, yet the collection’s highlight is pieces created by silversmiths working in the territory of the present-day Latvia. The shapes and decors of silver objects produced between the 16th and 21st centuries reveal the influence of styles typical of each era, like rococo, classicism, historicism and traditional folk motifs. Silver objects used in everyday life betray the impact of global historical events on people’s habits: an example of that is the sudden boom of popularity of hot chocolate pots and sugar casters in the 1700s, when the colonisation of the Americas and slave labour in the colonies made sugar and cocoa accessible to Europeans, radically transforming their eating habits.