TEA TIME
Skaidrīte Cihovska
TEA TIME celebrates the art of Skaidrīte Cihovska, a distinguished Latvian ceramicist. The show is largely composed of everyday design objects with pride of place given to the artist’s teapots, laconic and reserved in their association between form and detail. This topic has fascinated Cihovska ever since her first independent steps as an emergent artist: “I finished Rīga Secondary School of Applied Art with a graduation project “Jugs”, but for my final project at the art academy, I was already making teapots.”
Cihovska’s art is mainly about stability and precision. The artist is drawn to a rational language of form and enjoys blending function and decor. Never overly ornate, her ceramic objects and wares embody classical simplicity, but the artist’s lively imagination is let loose in eye-catching ceramic teapots: “I’m mainly fascinated by form and look. The finer details like spouts, handles and lids are what occupy me the most. I can tinker with them for hours, trying to find the most outlandish ways of shaping. I might also give a teapot a pair of legs. That said, I’m aware that, for the most part, my pots are neither functional nor practical.”
Throughout her creative career, the artist has made decorative and functional ceramic design objects as well as monumental sculptural pieces, known as “garden ceramics” in the 1960s and 70s. However, her primary concern has always been with the decorative side, both in seemingly practical household items and in her large-scale works.
Skaidrīte Cihovska was born in 1937 in Skrunda. Having graduated from the Rīga Secondary School of Applied Art (1957), she pursued a degree at the Art Academy of Latvia, Ceramics Department (1957—1964). 1963 through 1966, Cihovska was Chief Creative Officer at the Jelgava Ceramic Factory. In 1969, admitted into the Latvian Artists Union, she started at the experimental ceramic workshop in Ķīpsala, which brought fundamental changes to the style and rhythm of both her personal and professional life. Dating back to 1958, Cihovska’s extensive exhibition record includes several solo exhibitions and numerous group shows in Latvia and beyond.
(foto: Didzis Grodzs)
