Browse the artists’ extensive book collection, comprising books on art, literature, nature, and science as well as cookbooks and gardening handbooks. The collection gives you a good idea about what kind of intellectual resources were available in Soviet Latvia between the 1960s and 1980s.
The artists’compact collection of cookbooks included several volumes published in Soviet Latvia during the 1970s and 1980s, a few foreign-language editions, and a few books published in Latvia between the early 1900 and 1930s, inherited from their grandparents.
Nature: coming soon
Numerous books were published in Soviet Latvia and the Soviet Union about nature and natural history. The artists were avid readers on these topics and purchased almost everything that was published. Besides, the artists’ collection contains also items published in other Eastern European countries as they were available for mail order or purchase within Soviet Latvia.
Art: coming soon
The historical and art-historical value of the artists’ art book collection lies in the fact that it represents what kind of information about art was available to people in Soviet Latvia. The type, amount, and quality of reproductions as well as the discourse accompanying the images largely shaped most artists behind the Iron Curtain who came of age in the 1960s.
Science: coming soon
Juris Tifentals purchased and mail-ordered numerous scientific and pop-sci publications, mostly in Russian and published in Moscow, the capital city of the Soviet Union.
Fiction: coming soon
Collection of fiction and poetry books mostly in Latvian but also in Russian and a few other languages.
History, philosophy, mythology: coming soon
Numerous historical publications were available in Soviet Latvia, including Latvian or Russian translations of important landmarks of philosophical and historical works of the past from across the world.
Periodicals: coming soon
Zenta Dzividzinska and Juris Tifentals subscribed to a variety of art, design, photography, literary, and other cultural periodicals that were available in Soviet Latvia. Those included not only magazines published within the Soviet Union but also a range of periodicals from East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Most of the magazines from the collection, sadly, had to be discarded before it was possible to document them.