LVU Filoloģijas fakultātes Mākslas zinātņu nodaļa (1944–1951)

Art history was not taught at the higher level in the Republic of Latvia before the Second World War. A separate course of art history was offered to students of the Art Academy of Latvia as well as the future architects trained at the University of Latvia. The Art History Department was established at the State University of Latvia (SUL) in late 1944; this was the former University of Latvia renamed after the reoccupation of Riga by the USSR. According to tradition, the department was made part of the Faculty of Philology. It was tasked with the training of general as well as Latvian and Russian art history teachers alongside employees of museums and other cultural institutions. Most students at the Art History Department were girls with humanitarian interests because most of Latvia’s young men were drafted into the German army. In summer 1950, the department was rapidly nearing its end. The 2nd study year students were transferred to the Departments of Journalism, Latvian, German and English Philology as well as the Library Department. The Art History Department only saw three graduations (1949, 1950 and 1951) but the number of graduates was quite large, reaching 36. The Art History Department and Art History Division that lasted for seven years at the SUL started the academic training in art history in Latvia, of course, bearing the stamp of the Soviet ideology. The department was closed mainly due to the lack of suitable lecturers. The education obtained, although stuffed with Marxist-Leninist dogma, provided enough skills to enable graduates to lecture at the Art Academy, work in the Soviet Latvian Artists’ Union and museums, write books, compile catalogues and publish in the press. There is no reason to describe the first post-war Faculty of Philology as an island of intellectual freedom; however, students of the time had a chance to hear professionals who did not obey or failed to adapt to the simplified requirements of Soviet authorities.