Doctoral studies

The thesis explores the importance of the aesthetics of ugliness in Estonian art at the time of Konrad Mägi and Eduard Wiiralt

It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this very much applies to art: it is no longer appropriate to call a work of art either beautiful or ugly. But when and why did artists' sense of beauty expand? Lola Annabel Kass sheds light on this question through the aesthetics of ugliness and decadent art in her doctoral thesis.

Lola Annabel Kass

She explores the importance of the aesthetic of ugliness in decadent art and the influence of both on the development of modern art. The best-known examples of this artistic expression of decadence are Charles Baudelaire's poetry collection The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du mal, 1857) and the work of Félicien Rops, such as his painting Pornocrates (1896). Decadent art and literature are mostly associated with the fetishisation of morbidity, hedonism and sexual perversion. Kass, however, agrees with contemporary art and literary scholars who see in this artistic expression something multifaceted, where a rather ambivalent and critical relationship to its depicted subject matter becomes apparent. These include sexual perceptions, preferences and the aestheticisation of morbidity and hedonistic thinking that are considered abnormal in society, but also much more, which can be summarised as the representation of so-called decay and decline.
 
Kass's thesis reveals how, in a modernising and urbanising Europe, decadent creatives are turning against the cult of materialism by valuing spiritual and imaginative aspects of life, like the arts. "Through creative freedom and artistic experimentation, decadent art seeks to show the aesthetic charm of the 'ugly', and in doing so to shake up entrenched and normalized conceptions of what is considered beautiful or ugly, what is appropriate for art and what is permissible for the artist," Kass writes. Decadent art was one of the cornerstones of modernism, which began to take shape in the art metropolises of Europe in the second half of the 19th century and in Estonia during the period of the Young Estonians, when both the promotion of self-culture and becoming European (i.e. the creation of modern Estonian culture) took on importance.

The thesis does not focus on the work of selected artists, but rather on Estonian art from the first half of the 20th century in general. Nevertheless, three artists stand out as brilliant decadents: Erik Obermann, Konrad Mägi and Eduard Wiiralt. At the same time, Kass stresses that the influence of decadence was widespread in Estonia and that its influence can be seen in the work of many artists. Kass’s study takes a fresh look at Estonian artists who were active in the first half of the 20th century and reveals the modernity of their creative work from an intriguing angle linked to the aesthetics of ugliness and decadent art.

The thesis is an interdisciplinary study: its emphasis is on the visual arts, but this in turn is related to literature. "One of the chracateristics of decadent works is the dialogue between different forms of art, such as the abundance of references to other works," Kass argues. "For example, in Wiiralt's art you will find references to Baudelaire and August Gailit, while the literature of Friedebert Tuglas takes inspiration from Mägi and his paintings.” The comparative study of art and literature has revealed the extent of Baudelaire’s influence on Estonian art, as well as the inspiration the country’s writers and artists drew from one another.
 

Tallinn University School of Humanities doctoral student Lola Annabel Kass defended her doctoral thesis “The Beauty of Ugliness: Estonian Decadent Art in the First Half of the 20th Centuryne” on 23 September. The thesis supervisors were Mirjam Hinrikus, Research Professor at The Under and Tuglas Literature Centre of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and Kersti Markus, Professor at Tallinn University. Opponents were Jaan Undusk, Senior Researcher at Tallinn Univeristy and Anu Allas, PhD.