Jānis Valters
Ducks
1898

Vilhelms Purvītis
Spring Waters (Maestoso)
Ca. 1910

Janis Rozentāls
The Princess and the Monkey
1913

Jēkabs Kazaks
Refugees
1917

Niklāvs Strunke
At the Table. Smokers
1923

Uga Skulme
Portrait
of Elizabete Skulme
1927

Kārlis Miesnieks
Our Daily Bread
1929

Jēkabs Bīne
God, Māra, Laima
1931

Valdemārs Tone
At the Window
1932

Jānis Liepiņš
Late Visitors
1937

Sigismunds Vidbergs
The Dancer
1934

Pēteris Kalve
Roadside Willovs
1907

Hilda Vīka
In the Wind
1930

Jānis Tidemanis
Masks
The 1930s

Konrāds Ubāns
Jaunmoku Street
1938

At the end of the 19th century, as the self-awareness of the budding Latvian intelligentsia was maturing and new creative currents were flowing into Latvia, the visual arts experienced some major changes.

Ādams Alksnis, Janis Rozentāls, Jānis Valters and Vilhelms Purvītis who were students at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Art, founded the “Rūķis” (Gnome) group in order to promote the national art. They defined the artist’s aim to be to work and live in Latvia, becoming a true patriot and an outstanding creative personality.

Rozentāls, Purvītis and Valters, having successfully exhibited at the Academy, first showed their works in Riga in 1896 at the exhibition of Latvian ethnography during the 10th Archaeology Congress. This generation of artists who worked in their homeland but drew inspiration from the experience of Western Europe laid the foundations of Latvian art. In their efforts not to lag behind European art in the creative sense, they gave considerable thought to the preservation and cultivation of the national specificity.

At the turn of the century painting showed the signs of Academic Realism as well as those of the latest movements observed in foreign exhibitions and literature – Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Symbolism and Post-Impressionism. Janis Rozentāls, beginning with his diploma work “Coming from the Church” (1894), was the first to depict the life and work of the Latvian peasant and eventually became an outstanding portrait painter. Vilhelms Purvītis made his name in the history of Latvian art as the founder of the landscape genre. In his turn Jānis Valters developed his talent as a refined colourist in portraits and landscapes with a lyrical mood.

The first Latvian sculptors – Gustavs Šķilters, Teodors Zaļkalns and Burkards Dzenis – began their creative explorations only at the beginning of the 20th century (later than was the case in painting). Today, thanks to the historical heritage, Riga’s architecture counts among the most important Art Nouveau metropolises in Europe.

Latvian painters, drawing from the experience of Western European art, also used the plastic lines, the range of pale colours, decorative ornamentation and verticality of forms associated with Art Nouveau to create the symbolic moods of their works. The most convincing features of Art Nouveau and Symbolism can be found in the art of Janis Rozentāls. His figural composition “Arcadia” (1910) is a hymn to Art Nouveau but “The Princess and the Monkey”, which was shown at the Munich Secession in 1913, is a textbook example of the form.

In the landscapes of Vilhelms Purvītis, the symbolic moods of Art Nouveau can be seen in lyricism as well as more expressive rhythms. On the other hand, Jānis Valters uses a chalky colouring in his landscapes to achieve an impression of the mysterious twilight lighting much favoured in Nordic Symbolism.

One of the most original Latvian Symbolists was Rūdolfs Pērle, the painter of fantastic landscapes. Voldemārs Matvejs took a deep interest in both the research of ancient art as well as modern movements. Voldemārs Zeltiņš used the palette knife to lay thick strokes of paint on the canvas with a freedom in form that was unusual for Latvian painting of the time.

The influence of Classical Modernism came into Latvian art during the First World War and continued to be felt during the 1920s and 30s giving rise to bold explorations in the means of expression. In order to defend their avant-garde views, in 1920 the young artists formed the Riga Group of Artists.

In Latvia one of the most outstanding personalities in the history of Modernism was Jāzeps Grosvalds. In 1914, having studied at various private academies in Paris, he returned to Riga full of fresh ideas. Grosvalds subjected contemporary experiments in form to the revelation of the nation’s spiritual values and, being an officer on the Riga front line, he turned the epic depiction of the fates of his comrades.

The expressive oeuvre of Jēkabs Kazaks is a unique phenomenon of Classical Modernism. When painting the tragic lives of First World War refugees, portraits or genre scenes, Kazaks searched for “synthesising simplicity” dominated by clear uniformity in form.

The Classical Modernism movement to stylistically influence early 20th century Latvian painting the most was Cubism. Its characteristic geometrification of forms broke with traditional thinking and the imitation of nature. The period of theoretical thinking and explorations in form lasted until 1922; during this time young artists would use impressions gained from studying reproductions or in the galleries of Moscow. However, after their trips to Paris in the early 1920s, painters took a deeper interest in the examples of the synthetic stage of Cubism.

When visiting the editorial offices of the Purist magazine “L’Esprit Nouveau” in Paris, members of the Riga Group of Artists were introduced to Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (better known as the architect Le Corbusier), Amédée Ozenfant and Jacques Lipchitz but the works of Pablo Picasso were to be the major source of their inspiration.

The most consistent Cubists in Latvia were Oto Skulme, Valdemārs Tone, Romans Suta, Jānis Liepiņš, Aleksandra Beļcova, Emīls Melderis, Niklāvs Strunke and Ludolfs Liberts. On the other hand, Ģederts Eliass, Konrāds Ubāns and Leo Svemps were more involved in the plasticity of the painting without trying to overstep the boundaries of simplification of form. In sculpture, where an essential feature is a multiplicity of facets, Cubism did not take such a firm hold. Nevertheless, the portraits by Emīls Melders and Teodors Zaļkalns undoubtedly show a very good understanding of the style.

In chronological terms, the period of Latvian Classical Modernism was closed by the New Objectivity at the end of the 1920s. This classically oriented Neo-Realism appeared in Western European, especially German, painting after the First World War as an opposition to Expressionism and Latvian artists turned to it in the mid 20s. In their compositions they used such features of the New Objectivity as the static form, the accent on the drawing, a cool range of colours, a thin layer of paint and a sheen close to a metal surface. The most outstanding representatives of this style were Aleksandra Beļcova and Uga Skulme although other artists (Kārlis Miesnieks, Alberts Silzemnieks and Jānis Plase) were also to include means of expression typical of the movement in their own stylistic handwriting.

Interest in Realism continued in the art of the 1920s. With its origins in the academic traditions of the 19th century, it was dominated by the drawing and a strong line; colouring was of less importance. Jānis Roberts Tillbergs, the last Latvian artist to graduate from the St. Petersburg Academy of Art, successfully applied the principles of Academism in his formal portraits. In his portrait of the poet Jānis Rainis (1925), Tillbergs used a particularly low horizon thus expressively accentuating the importance of the poet’s persona.

“Our Daily Bread” (1929), a eulogy to the work of the Latvian peasant by the talented master of drawing Kārlis Miesnieks displays the principles of the classical tradition in the structure of a figural composition.

The idealised “folkiness” tendency in Latvian painting in the 1920s and 30s may be regarded as an original affirmation of the historical self-awareness of a new state. Works of this style display attempts to idealise the harmonious life of the ancient Letts through deepening society’s interest in mythology and the divinities that people know from legends, folk songs and folk tales. Ansis Cīrulis’ balanced and impassioned composition “New Farmer” (1928), painted in the manner of the New Objectivity, reveals moods that were ideologically pertinent to the time – praise for the post-war peasant’s hard yet blessed work as a pioneer. Arturs Bērnieks’ mythological sculptures catch the eye with their original naivety.

In the 1930s changes took place in all aspects of the visual arts; the use of means of expression characteristic of Realism once again began to take the upper hand. The Classical Modernism generation, the members of the Riga Group of Artists that was founded in 1920 (Jānis Liepiņš, Oto Skulme, Uga Skulme, Leo Svemps, Romans Suta, Valdemārs Tone and Konrāds Ubāns), drew inspiration from classical European art. They creatively synthesised the contemporary way of expression of youthful exploration with a more traditional view of the surrounding world. The group’s works of the 1930s stand out with their painterly’ freedom (in the case of Liepiņš and Svemps it was even expressive); the works reveal both the temperament of each artist as well as their characteristic colouring, texture and plasticity of form.

As the Riga Group reached professional maturity, the Avant-Garde tendencies seen in their first exhibitions became subdued. Nevertheless its members continued to maintain a genuine belief in the basic values of painting. Their creative contribution may be regarded as the most outstanding expression of the spirit of the age in Latvian art as a whole.

In sculpture, bronze and marble, which were the favourite materials at the beginning of the 20th century, were in the 1930s replaced to a large degree by stone, mainly granite. In their images Teodors Zaļkalns, Marta Skulme, Emīls Melderis and Kārlis Zemdega looked for the unity of laconism and plasticity, and the clarity of classical expression to reveal the strength associated with the Latvian mentality.

Latvian graphics in the early 20th century were heavily influenced by the ornamentally decorative line and language forms, the stylisation of natural forms, fantasy subjects and the ambiguity of moods and content characteristic of Art Nouveau and Symbolism (Rihards Zariņš, Teodors Ūders, Pēteris Krastiņš, Pēteris Kalve). Graphic artists under the influence of National Romanticism turned to Latvian folklore and mythology. This movement continued into the 1920s and 30s (Ansis Cīrulis, Niklāvs Strunke).

The period of the First World War and the 1920s saw a growing interest in the latest stylistic tendencies of Western European art and we see the appearance of the features of Classical Modernism. Explorations into the simplification of forms and expression had their origins during the war years when works featuring refugee and Latvian riflemen themes (Jāzeps Grosvalds, Jēkabs Kazaks). The range of subjects gradually widened with scenes from the urban environment and everyday life, bohemia, erotica, anti-war themes and religious motifs.

Drawings and watercolours revealed a certain contact with the stylistics of Art Deco (Sigismunds Vidbergs, Niklāvs Strunke, Ādolfs Zārdiņš) and the New Objectivity (Uga Skulme, Aleksandra Beļcova, Hilda Vīka). The means of expression and formal techniques used by the artists covered a broad spectrum – linear drawings, the geometrification of dimensions, diverse juxtapositions of the textures of fields and black and white relationships. Romans Suta cultivated his individual style in expressive ink drawings and watercolours whereas the works of Kārlis Padegs stood out with their grotesque vision.

The 1930s saw the increased influence of Realism; artists turned more often to pastel painting creating works with original interpretations of lyrical themes of everyday life and landscapes (Voldemārs Irbe, Aleksandrs Cīrulis, Erna Geistaute).

Gustavs Klucis, a Latvian artist of world renown, worked in Soviet Russia during the 1920s and 30s. His oeuvre took shape in the context of Russian Avant-Garde art. Supplementing his Constructivist experience with innovative photo-montage, Klucis created a principally new language of visual expression.

Old Master Vihelms Purvītis continued to work successfully in the now independent Latvia but the 1930s saw the increasing importance of artists who had graduated from the Latvian Academy of Art (founded in 1919). Artists who had attended Purvītis’ Landscape Masterclass gained particular recognition – Eduards Kalniņš, Nikolajs Breikšs, Ārijs, Skride, Ansis Artums, Valdis Kalnroze and Jūlijs Viļumainis. They continued painting the native landscape as begun by Purvītis but they introduced fresh techniques of expression.

A unique phenomenon in painting at the beginning of the 1930s was the well known draftsman Kārlis Padegs whos subjected his images to grotesque deformations with provocative boldness. Augusts Annuss, a graduate of Jānis Roberts Tillbergs’ Masterclass in Figural Composition, stands out with his depictions of the lives of fishermen.

During this period artists’ interest in the Parisian art scene did not abate. On the other hand the 1927 Riga exhibition of Belgian art was a great success and had considerable influence on Latvian painting of the 1930s. Ģederts Eliass and Jānis Tīdemanis, graduates of the Royal Academies in Brussels and Antwerp, introduced the Latvian public to the vitality and democracy of the Belgian school. Eliass depicted the lives of the peasants of Zemgale with ambitious strength but the paintings of Tīdemanis exude the breath of the city.

Living in Germany, Purvītis’ contemporary Jānis Valters borrowed the form and colour deformations of German Expressionism but back in his homeland, his explorations only became known in 1939 with a memorial exhibition.

When Latvia was noticed as a state for the first time, Vilhelms Purvītis' deepest held conviction began to be realised: “We are clearing the path to Europe with our art and we hope that we will clear it”.