The national Purvītis Prize was founded in January 2008 by the Latvian National Museum of Art and is supported by the SIA Alfor company. Its aim is to gather regular and systematic information on the current visual arts scene in Latvia, to promote the development of new projects and original ideas and to, acknowledge the finest achievements in Latvian professional visual art and popularise the success of Latvian artists both in Latvia and abroad.

THE PRIZE

The Purvītis Prize is awarded every two years to an artist or group of artists who represent Latvian art with an outstanding closely tied to the processes of the time in which there is a link to contemporary life, spiritual ideals and absolute values and which has been rated the highest by experts and a specially formed panel of judges.

The first Purvītis Prize was awarded on 11 February 2009 to Katrīna Neiburga for her video work entitled Solitude. The second price was awarded on 18 February 2011 to Kristaps Ģelzis for his solo exhibition Maybe at the Māksla XO gallery in 2009.

The prize is named after the Old Master of Latvian painting Vilhelms Purvītis (1872–1945). He was an outstanding artist and art professor who won critical acclaim both at home and internationally. Therefore the prize will become a kind of synthesis of established, classical values and the seemingly momentary, contemporary art processes.

The name of Vilhelms Purvītis has become a sign of national identity, both in the history of Latvian art and in the eyes of the general public. The co-founder of the national school of art and the pioneer of the national landscape painting, Vilhelms Purvītis is one of the all-time most influential figures in Latvian cultural and art life; he was the head of the Riga Art School, the director of the Riga Museum of Art and the founder of the collection of Latvian art, the founder and the first rector of the Latvian Academy of Art and for many years, the head of the landscape masterclass at the academy, the Commissioner General of all the representative Latvian art exhibitions abroad during the interwar period.

The authority, educational work and artistic style of this prominent landscapist and Fellow of the St. Petersburg Academy of Art has left an impact on several generations of Latvian artists. A wise and farsighted culture politician, Vilhelms Purvītis was an active supporter of the young artists of the time and discovered a number of talented painters who later played important roles on the Latvian art scene.

The founding of the Purvītis Prize raises hope that the new tradition of supporting artists who have demonstrated considerable stylistic individuality and talent and whose ideas and projects make our life richer and brighter, will take root in Latvian cultural life.

The prize money is LVL 20 000 (before taxes), which makes it the largest award in Latvian visual arts.

PATRON OF THE MUSEUM

The Purvītis Prize in art is organised and awarded by the Latvian National Museum of Art in conjunction with the patron of the museum. A protocol of intent regarding cooperation in founding and organising the Purvītis Prize was signed on 9 January 2008. The compay SIA Alfor became the patron of the museum and has agreed to support the prize financially for the next ten years. Also involved in the organisation of the Purvītis Prize is the cultural projects agency INDIE and the P.R.A.E. Public Relations agency.

“This moment marks a significant new development in the area of visual art and indicates the purposeful involvement of private business in the important processes of cultural life. Although it has been approved and generally recognised practice in Europe and worldwide for a long time now, this marks a new a new trend in the Latvian art world,” says Māra Lāce, the Director of the LNMA.

SIA Alfor, the company that responded to the appeal by the Latvian National Museum of Art to participate in the founding and awarding process of the prize, has previously sponsored a number of contemporary visual arts events; to name but one, SIA Alfor supported an ambitious project in late 2007, the exhibition Candy Bomber: The Young in Latvian Painting.

EXPERTS 2011/2012

Projects, exhibitions and art events will be nominated for the prize by a specially formed panel of seven independent experts; the panel will convene four times a year. The experts’ task is to monitor, within their capacities, the latest developments in Latvian art throughout the year and to draw up a list of nominees to the prize.

Members of the 2011/2012 Purvītis Prize panel of experts are art scholar and head of the Latvian Visual Art Department of the Latvian National Museum of Art Ginta Gerharde-Upeniece, LNMA exhibitions curator Irēna Bužinska, art scholar and curator Inese Baranovska, art critic and curator Vilnis Vējš, art critic Jānis Borgs, Centre for Contemporary Art director Solvita Krese and art historian and editor-in-chief of the Neputns publishing house Laima Slava.

PANEL OF JUDGES

At the end of 2012 the experts will shortlist no more than eight nominees for the prize; their works will be exhibited at a joint show at the Arsenāls exhibition hall of the LNMA and rated by a panel of nine judges. To ensure an unbiased opinion and raise the profile of Latvian art abroad, internationally recognised experts from other countries are invited to join the panel of judges.