ART COLLECTION 2020

Latvian National Museum of Art offers to view more than 300 contemporary artworks from the museum's collection on the online platform "Art Collection 2020"

The platform "Art Collection 2020" was created thanks to the support of the law firm Ellex Kļaviņš and the State Culture Capital Foundation and represents the unique procurement of artworks in 2020.

The reason for creating platform "Art Collection 2020"

With the aim of “reducing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the culture sector, giving support to actively working artists affected by the crisis and simultaneously qualitatively adding to the museum’s collection” (Cabinet of Ministers Order No 339 of 18.06.2020), in the summer of 2020, the Latvian National Museum of Art was granted 550 000 euros from the state budget for acquiring artworks. To ensure a qualitative and transparent artwork selection process, the museum established an Expert Committee comprising five specialists from the museum and five experts invited from outside. Based on the Statutes, the experts appraised the art scene of the last 30 years as reflected in the museum’s collections to determine which artistic trends and artists of the period are completely unrepresented or only have a handful of works in the LNMA collection.

Through a unique acquisition programme, 325 works by 107 currently-active artists of all generations were added to the museum’s collection. A broad spectrum of visual arts spheres is represented in the collection, including painting, sculpture and objects, photography and video, as well as mixed-media installations, interdisciplinary projects, and design artworks. The works cover a wide range of subjects and moods, from universal, globally articulated values to evocations based on personal experience, and neutral observations to ironic or provocative messages.

While it would be impossible to simultaneously show all of “Art Collection 2020” in the exhibition hall, it will be available online for everyone. The digital catalogue provides information about the circumstances of creation and concept of each work, as well as technical information and images.