TO SEE ČIURLIONIS THROUGH THE EYES OF UŽDAVINYS: THE MYSTERY OF LIGHT DISPERSION AS A THEURGICAL ACT

Theurgy as the work of the gods and the rapprochement with the divine source of light was one of the essential creative aspirations of Algis Uzdavinys (1962–2010). Between Čiurlionis and Uzdavinys, who grew up in the same natural space of Dzūkija, there is a deep internal connection between the basic creative attitudes, which is first of all manifested in the constant search for higher spiritual ideals and value systems. If we consider that the mystery of man and the universe is a real artistic task, requiring a mystical fusion with the primary source of light, then Čiurlionis behaved like a demiurge uplifting the spirit by performing the work of the gods with strokes.

Čiurlionis’s „Spring Sonata“ (1907) shows the processes of the awakening of nature and the spiritual clarification of man, which unfold in the shelter of the refreshing power of the Sun and Light. Here the world is seen as the primary sound and light that has become the material body, and light, air, and water are the life-giving elements of cosmogony. The projections of noetic lights, born of a sense of the fullness of the primordial being, recreate the story of the spiritual vision of the paintings of the Spring Sonata (Allegro, Andante, Scherzo, and Finale). Thus, step by step contemplating the elements of the visible and audible worlds as symbols of the divine mysteries, the Spring Sonata is a genealogical act of the scattering of light or a mythopoetic story of spiritual rebirth.