"Perpetual motion" Automatic translate

Erarta Museum of Modern Art for the first time opens in Russia an exhibition of works by Latvian authors from the collection of Raivis Zabis.

All Latvian artists invited to participate in the Eternal Movement exhibition at the Erarta Museum in St. Petersburg - Daiga Kruze, League Kempe, Atis Jacobsons, Kaspars Perskis, Dace Delinja-Lipska and Ilgvars Zalans - graduates of the Latvian Academy of Arts, their works are well known in professional circles for many years. And although the local artistic situation has not been very favorable for modern painting recently, those artists who chose this particular artistic practice as the main one managed to prove that Latvian painting never lost its significance. Being one of the most expressive art forms, it has always been almost reverently admired.

Daiga Cruze is an example of an artist whose work is largely dictated by the intuition of the master. She prefers a game with color blocks and strokes, during which abstract fantastic landscapes arise. The starting point for them is both real landscapes and imaginary spaces, reflecting not familiar reality, but a kind of internal emotional landscape of the artist, presented to us in a deeply personal manner.

The artist Ilgvars Zalans pays special attention to the expressive properties of painting, seeing in this both the main creative task and the main difficulty of his craft. Ilgvars is a self-taught artist. During his career, he managed to try himself in a variety of techniques, giving preference to those of them that originate in the painting of action and performance, which he has been practicing since 2007. The artist is also interested in classical oil painting on canvas, which this exhibition confirms, but in his two-dimensional paintings, the connection with the action painting is still noticeable: they have spontaneity, impulsiveness, unexpectedness and unbridled color.

Artist League Kempe in her work is focused on technical aspects. Her painting is built from many colorful layers, which the author additionally scratches, varnishes, polishes and polishes, achieving a pronounced glossy shine. Often her work literally becomes a finely polished jewel. And although her works can be attributed to a more decorative, salon art, they are nevertheless interesting in the choice of topics: here there is a place for reflection on the female share, and themes of interpersonal relations and human fate in general.

Dace Deligne-Lipska is another artist who is interested in the topic of femininity. Her paintings, written in multicolor, colorful strokes, depict complex, outstanding characters. It is important to note an interesting correlation between the initial impulse that the artist is trying to capture and the general theme placed in a wider informational context. For example, a recent series of works is dedicated to women of such nationalities as suites and setos, representatives of ethnic groups that have long been living in western Latvia, southern Estonia and Russia. In his works, Dace focuses on their appearance - posture, clothing, and the severity of the faces. All this indicates an internal force, which is part of the identity of these women, which has been formed over the centuries and preserved to this day.

Unlike the bright Dace paintings, the work of Kaspars Perskis is executed in monochrome. The artist prefers black and rich shades of gray. Despite the gloomy palette and rather crude writing, the artist, nevertheless, manages to give his works a special lyricism, often due to the presence of a person in them, most often women. His works can be called minimalistic, almost nothing happens here. The human presence rather sets the atmosphere, a certain mood, and does not imitate the real life situation.

Atis Jakobsons, the last of the Latvian artists represented at this exhibition, is interested in issues of gender identity and the fine line that separates the male from the female. Entering the game with various images and characters, primarily in the portrait genre, he experiments with the perception of the viewer, defying our prejudices. The artist returns to the classic portrait genre, which for many centuries served not only as a mirror reflecting the social status and wealth of the model, but also as a space for the author to express himself and reflect. In the process of creating his works, Atis always somehow interacts with the people whom he portrays, talking with them, sketching from nature or photographing them. This allows him to draw up a certain psychological portrait of the model, which invariably is an important part of the final work.

The variety of creative methods demonstrated by the six artists represented here confirms that nowadays painting has become so diverse and multifaceted that almost everyone can find something for themselves in it. Painting as a form of art continues to challenge itself and the viewer, requiring him to carefully study and evaluate, especially if traditional expressive means are involved. Her artistic language can not be called obsolete. The Eternal Movement exhibition at the Erarta Museum and the artists participating in it personify a variety of approaches and techniques, rethinking the contemporary meaning of painting and striving to show a wide range of creative practices, asserting a peculiar democracy of this art form.