THE INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION
“FERDYNAND RUSZCZYC (1870-1936). LIFE AND WORKS”
Radvilos Palace, 15th October, 2002 - 15th December, 2002

"Such is art. It does not refer to stars but simply picks them and frames as precious stones. It removes a white cloud from a dome of heaven and lets it down onto the ground, keeps off a fading rainbow and strokes the shaggy summits of mountains [...] It is that language, not hearing that is born in ecstasy and pain and the eyesight catches (1). This was the way Ferdynand Ruszczyc, a painter, graphic artist and pedagogue, organizer of the artistic life in the 20th-century Vilnius, wrote on the nature of art.
Ruszczyc was born in 1870 on the estate of Bohdanow in the county of Oshmiany (now Belarus), some 30 km from Vilnius. In 1890 he finished a classical gymnasium in Minsk with a gold medal. At his father's request he entered Petersburg University to read law. However two years later Ruszczyc abandoned the study of law and entered the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he specialized in landscape painting.
His first teacher in the period between 1893-1895 was Ivan Repin, the great Russian landscapist. He familiarized the artist with a thorough study of nature and its detailed analysis. Encouraged by his teacher, Ruszczyc visited the Crimea twice. The drawings created in the environs of Alupka and Balaklava as well as the seascapes in oil are the best witness to the artist's early searchings: his works precisely convey the details of nature - they seem to have been fixed by a curious investigator or a documentalist who did his best to reflect an image in sight in the most accurate way.
The possibilities of representing another world, different from that conventionally perceived by realists, were opened to him by his studies of landscape continuing from 1895 under the painter Arkhip Kuindzhi, who encouraged the young artist to take a glance at a landscape as if "from inside" and to render the main artistic idea articulated in the painting. Kuindzhi perceived nature not only as a visible material world - he felt its deep inner content. He made an attempt to convey a great unity of existence by way of revealing its archaic character and the initial spontaneity. Kuindzhi, likewise Scandinavian romanticists of the late 19th-the early 20th c., strove to strengthen the perception of a landscape as a "state of soul". A pantheistic perception of nature, a wish to merge with a metaphysical world through nature so characteristic of the teacher, stimulated his pupils to draw closer to the secrets of nature.

In the years of his studies under Kuindzhi Ruszczyc was under the spell of the works by the symbolist Arnold Bocklin. The paintings done by the academy graduate in 1897, notably "The Evening Star", "The Triton" speak of Bocklin's influence. A third graduation work "The Spring", featuring the landscape at Bohdanow, was acquired by the Muscovite Pavel Tretyakov, the famous art collector.
After graduation from the Imperial Academy of Arts, Ruszczyc went abroad once more. During his first journey in 1896 he visited Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark), then spent a few months in West Europe - went to Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Vienna, Milan, Verona, Venice... Upon his return, in the period between 1898-1904, he spent most of his time at his native Bohdanow, where he created the works which brought him fame: "The Earth", "The Mill", "The Ballad", "Emigrants", "The Last Snow", "The Waste Ground", "The Clouds" and others. His paintings pulsate with a melancholic mood, pessimism peculiar to the art at the turn of the century. The compositions are dominated by the air, earth and water calamities, which encircle a sometimes emerging figure of a small man or a motif of a lonely house. The adoration of necromantic historical past and retrospectivism are brought out by the works "Kreva Castle", "The Past" and a secessionist decorativism - "The Winter Fairy Tale".
After his studies the artist closely associated with Kuindzhi, his former academy friends and joined the vortex of Petersburg's artistic life: participated in Spring exhibitions held by the Academy, established closer contacts with the members of "Mir iskusstva" (The World of Art), exhibited his works arranged by the society. However, his relations with the Imperial Academy of Arts due to a constant confrontation between Kuindzhi's students and conservative critique gradually weakened. Some years later his contacts with "The World of Art" were also broken off. The young artist filled this vacuum with frequent expositions of his works in Poland, and it didn't take him long to join a modern movement of artists "Mtoda Polska" (Young Poland), where shortly after he was recognized as an authority on symbolic landscape.
Ruszczyc presented his painting in Warsaw for the first time in 1899. He was a great success. His work "The Earth" made a tremendous impression on the public and received great critical acclaim. The figures of two bulls and a man emerging between dark earth and high sky covered in huge clouds fascinated everybody both in respect of the virtuosity of painting and a symbolic content, and the views of the composition conveying his deeply hidden patriotic feelings and love to his native land. The next year the acclaimed young painter participated in a grandiose exhibition to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Krakow Jagiellonian University and was unanimously elected a member of the Polish artists' society "Sztuka" (Art) in Krakow. He featured his works in the exhibitions arranged by this society in Krakow, Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, London and other cities in Poland and abroad.
In the period from 1903 to 1904 Ruszczyc along with other artists furthered the organization and opening of an art school in Warsaw. Here he held a teaching post up to 1907. It was this school where Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis studied under Prof. Ruszczyc. The painter closely associated with him not only during the study years but also in his Vilnius period. Ruszczyc highly valued Ciurlionis from among other active Lithuanian painters of the period and called him a herald of new art. In 1911, attending the funeral of the prominent Lithuanian artist, he said: "[...] One of Ciurlionis' works is well-known to you. A bird emerges from an awakening light, widely girdles the mountain summits with his wings and flies further. It is "A Piece of News". This was the news Ciurlionis came with. He was a herald of new, young art charged with his might. He unfolded beauty, exciting spring to his land and close people. He left us also in spring [...]" (2).
His teaching job took much time and Ruszczyc could hardly find a spare minute for painting. Regardless of the lack of time, in 1905 he produced one of his most impressive symbolic compositions - "Nec mergitur". The debris of the drifting wrecked ship on the crest of a foamy wave was described by critics as an allegory of motherland, which survived after painful historical events. In this period, 1906-1907, Ruszczyc painted "The Grandmothers Room", "The Small Desk", "The Hearth" and others. The paintings featuring domestic interiors of the Bohdanow estate lit by the rays of sunlight disclosed one more side of Ruszczyc' painting: intimate, pervaded by nostalgia of a nobiliary origin, and the world reigned by peace and stability.
In 1907 after the death of Jan Stanislawski he was offered to head the Department of Landscape at the Cracow Academy of Arts. However, shortly after he abandoned this post due to the lingering atmosphere full of intrigues and disagreements. In 1908 he returned to Vilnius and settled down for good. The same year he did his last painting "The Nest". It symbolically spoke of his homecoming and at the same time completed one phase of his work succeeded by a new period in the artist's life, radiating with his love to Vilnius. Having established himself in Vilnius, Ruszczyc actively engaged in the city cultural life as an organizer and designer of various ventures, a publisher, a graphic artist, a staging director, and after World War I - the head of the Art Faculty at the Bathory University.
Some traces of Ruszczyc' creative work were still smouldering in Vilnius. Intellectuals remembered his works exhibited in Vilnius in 1899 and 1902. They were close to them due to the nice and "their own" landscapes. The exhibition of the works by the society of the Polish artists "Sztuka" at the initiative of Ruszczyc in the pavilion of the Bernardines Garden in 1903 was a real cultural fiesta, where the most celebrated representatives of the Polish Modernism - Stanistaw Wyspianski, Jozef Mehoffer, Jacek Malczewski, Ruszczyc himself and others were presented to the Vilnius public for the first time. The Polish title of the exhibition "Sztuka" was changed for the Latin "Ars" by the order of the tsar censorship. The poster designed by Ruszczyc came out only in Russian and French.
It didn't take him long to acclimatize himself in the circles of intellectuals. Seeing an "innate beauty of Vilnius", he stimulated others to admire the city, to fix the decaying architectural monuments. In 1912 he initiated to establish the City Photography Archive, the director of which was Jan Bulhak, the artists like-minded person. He was also greatly attentive to the press in Vilnius. Though he was fond of designing the covers for catalogues, magazines and other publications in earlier years, now he matured as a brilliant connoisseur of publishing graphic art. The artist facilitated a new attitude to a publication as an artistic whole to take root. The publishing projects devised and executed by Ruszczyc reflected a modern form of a "small synthesis" peculiar to the turn of the centuries, i.e. the entire design - illustrations, photographs, accidental drawings, print, format, binding, etc. - made a balanced artistic whole.
The revitalization of a periodical artistic cultural magazine "Tygodnik Wilenski" (Vilnius Daily) initiated by Ruszczyc and the archivist Wactaw Studnicki was an important cultural event. The magazine, likewise a majority of the phenomena of the period, was inseparable from a political and cultural situation in the country. The restrictions imposed by the tsar authorities, the topical issues of national identity, the sluggish artistic life in Vilnius - all that was featured in the published articles. They presented in parallel the Polish, Belarusian, and Lithuanian culture as interdependent phenomena. The authors of the articles writing about the past of Lithuania saw before their eyes the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania, associated with Poland through the links of the Union and cultural ties. The magazine was illustrated with the photographs by the prominent photographers of the period. Unfortunately, in a short while, in 1911, with the appearance of magazine No 15-16, dedicated to the interrelations between Vilnius and Warsaw, the publication was banned by the tsar censorship.
The album "Wilno z przed stu lat" (Vilnius a 100 Years Ago) designed by Ruszczyc in 1912 also occupied an exceptional place. It included a reproduction of Franciszek Smuglewicz' cycle of Vilnius views painted in the late 18th c., which fixed a neglected and decaying ensemble of castles, impressive city gates and a defence wall. The clearly-cut architectural structure of the buildings, the exact proportions, the spatial disposition of monuments in the urban city composition imparted an inestimable documentary value to the drawings, particularly to those featuring the long-ago demolished monuments.
Another sphere of activities, where Ruszczyc displayed his pioneering ideas, was theatre. The life of the Polish theatre in Vilnius, likewise the entire impoverished culture by the muravyovisn policy, came to life before long - as soon as the ban on the press was lifted. The repertoire of the theatre at that time was diverse and modem enough, however, artists- decorators were mainly guided by the set design principles dominant in the 19th c. Ruszczyc' sets introduced a new conception into a set design. Stylized sets bring out both abstract and symbolic plastics, which, beside literature and the mastery of actors, become one more axis of the performance. The set design for Juliusz Stowacki's drama "Lilla Weneda", the designed scenic sights and the costumes for Edmond Rostand's necromantic drama "The Eaglet" and the ventures for charity purposes were highly acclaimed by the public. In 1914 the artist was invited to a new Polish theatre in Warsaw. The premier of J. Slowacki's drama "Balladyna" demonstrated the triumph of Ruszczyc as a stenographer. His set designs and costumes have greatly complemented the history of Polish stenography.
In 1915 with the occupation of Vilnius and the Vilnius territory by Germans, the painter retreated to Bohdanow, where he spent three years. After the war, when Vilnius University was reopened in 1919, Ruszczyc engaged in teaching activities. His great efforts to find a proper place for art disciplines among other departments of the university were crowned with success. Up to 1932 he held in turn the office of the Dean and Deputy Dean of the Art Faculty.
Working at the University Ruszczyc did not neglect his previously expanded artistic activities: designed the covers and vignettes for books, drew stamps and offering cards, created personal medals and various flags for the army, societies, workshops and schools - the artist could not help beautifying even ordinary, mundane events. After the war Ruszczyc contributed to the organization of two big exhibitions: in 1921 he was one of the organizers and designers of the first Polish art exhibitions in Paris, and in 1928 he arranged a regional exhibition in Vilnius, where the attention was focused on the economic and cultural life of the Vilnius and Naugardukas (Novogrudok) territories.
In 1932 owing to his serious illness, he retreated from active public life and moved to Bohdanow. Here he died (1936) and here was buried. His surviving works like monuments witness to this day his attempts to illuminate life with the light of beauty at least for an instant.

(1.) F. Ruszczyc. Tradycje sztuki w Wilnie. 1919. - LVIA, f. 1135, ap. 22, b. 299,I. 2-3
(2.) Tygodnik Wilenski. - Wilno. 1911. nr. 14.

Alge Andriulyte

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