Painting
The Painting Collection consists of over 6000 artworks representing various historical periods and styles, from the 1700s to contemporary art, and reflecting both local traditions and international influences. Painting, one of the most traditional and visually accessible art forms, represents the Collection’s most dynamic element and is highly sought after for loans.
Classic Latvian Painting. Formation of a National School
The Zuzāns Collection holds works representing the oeuvre of the late 1700s and 1800s Baltic German painters Karl Gotthard Grass, Johann Heinrich Baumann and Julius Fedders. These artists, who had close ties with Latvia, focused on depicting nature and local culture, thus providing a historical insight into the everyday life of the Baltic region at the time.
The most significant transformations related to the awareness and formation of national identity among Latvian artists took place at the turn of the 20th century.
In 1891, years before Latvia declared its statehood, Latvian students at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts formed a group they named Rūķis (Gnome).
The members laid the groundwork for future development of Latvian art, fostering the unique character of the national school of painting and incorporating influences of the leading European art movements of the time. Among the members of the Rūķis group were Vilhelms Purvītis, the great landscape painter and academician; Janis Rozentāls, one of the most prominent Symbolist painters in Latvian art as well as Johann Walter-Kurau, master of Impressionist-inspired landscapes and portraits.Their works are not only a cornerstone of the Zuzāns Collection, but also a seminal part of Latvian art and an important testimony of their time. The early Latvian modernists are also represented in the Collection by artworks of Jāzeps Grosvalds, Voldemārs Matvejs and Voldemārs Zeltiņš.
20th-Century Interwar Art in Latvia
Particularly close to the collector’s heart, the art of the interwar years of the 20th century is represented in the Zuzāns Collection with a vast range of paintings of high artistic merit.
Following the Latvian independence in 1918, there was an increase in private and institutional contacts between Latvian artists and Western European art centres, opening ways for new ideas and artistic approaches. Various groups and associations of artists were formed one after another, with the Riga Group of Artists (1920–1940) recognised as the most significant among them. The members embraced creative experimenting in their search for an innovative painterly language while simultaneously striving to preserve their own unique style and cultural singularity. Inspired by the French and German trends of classical modernism, Latvian artists favoured Cubism, Fauvism, New Objectivity and Expressionism. The modernist artists of the group most widely represented in the Collection are Aleksandra Beļcova, Jānis Liepiņš, Jēkabs Kazaks, Konrāds Ubāns, Niklāvs Strunke, Oto Skulme, Uga Skulme, Romans Suta, Leo Svemps, Erasts Šveics, Valdemārs Tone.
Apart fromthe Riga Group, Ludolfs Liberts was actively experimenting along the lines of Cubism, while Fauvist approaches were used by Ģederts Eliass. Widely represented in the Collection, the Latvian adept of Belgian expressionism Jānis Ferdinands Tīdemanis was also bringing innovative painterly devices to Latvian art.
Art of the Second Half of the 20th Century
The Collection presents an extensive overview of Soviet occupation-era painting created in Latvia after the Second World War (1945–1990). This part of the Collection vividly illustrates the diverse paths Latvian artists explored in their search for identity in the complicated decades of dogmas and censorship imposed by Soviet ideology. Dominant in the early years of the occupation regime, the expansion of socialist realism gradually lost its momentum following Stalin’s death. Developed during Khrushchev’s Thaw (1956–1963), the so-called ‘harsh style’ started a revival of Latvian art, setting it on a modernist course. A shift in reference points taking the shape of new formal, compositional and stylistic pursuits can be detected in the art of many painters active in the late 1950s and 1960s represented in the Collection, like Lidija Auza, Ojārs Ābols, Leonīds Āriņš, Biruta Baumane, Auseklis Baušķenieks, Boriss Bērziņš, Līvija Endzelīna, Edgars Iltners, Eduards Kalniņš, Henrijs Klēbahs, Leo Kokle, Jānis Osis, Jānis Pauļuks, Rūdolfs Pinnis, Džemma Skulme, Georgs Šenbergs, Rita Valnere, Indulis Zariņš and others.
The 1970s saw artists find ways of exercising increasing freedom of artistic self-expression while still staying within the boundaries drawn by the system. New generations of artists whose painterly interests and influences frequently resonated with current art trends on the other side of the Iron Curtain announced themselves: Māris Ārgalis, Juris Baklāns, Inta Celmiņa, Juris Dimiters, Biruta Delle, Edvards Grūbe, Helēna Heinrihsone, Ivars Heinrihsons, Imants Lancmanis, Vija Maldupe, Leonīds Mauriņš, Vilis Ozols, Ivars Poikāns, Miervaldis Polis, Līga Purmale, Daina Riņķe, Maija Tabaka, Bruno Vasiļevskis, Osvalds Zvejsalnieks, et al.
In the 1980s, actively working alongside recent graduates from the Latvian Art Academy, many painters of previous generations continued developing their individual style. Painting became more expressive and personal until ultimately breaking free from the constraints of Soviet ideology by the end of the decade with the emergence of the so-called Trespassers (Robežpārkāpēji) generation, who incarnated new artistic ideas, making steps toward the contemporariness of the 1990s. It was the years when significant artists like Ilze Avotiņa, Normunds Brasliņš, Ieva Iltnere, Rudīte Dreimane, Laima Eglīte, Frančeska Kirke, Sandra Krastiņa, Valdis Krēsliņš, Leonards Laganovskis, Dace Lielā, Jānis Mitrēvics, Ģirts Muižnieks, Juris Utāns, Edgars Vērpe, Aija Zariņa, Kaspars Zariņš, Kristaps Zariņš, Vilnis Zābers and others started their career.
A valuable addition to the artworks from the second half of the 20th century included in the Zuzāns Collection was the acquisition ofpaintings by two great American-Latvian painters, the Californian master of light and colours Raimonds Staprāns and the action painter Edvīns Strautmanis.
Contemporary Art
Aligning with the global art scene, the painting collection reflects the current art processes in Latvia and abroad. In building the collection, the primary focus is on the relevance of the artworks and high artistic merit. The growing collection is being expanded by adding new works by experienced Latvian artists like Anita Arbidāne, Ēriks Apaļais, Jānis Avotiņš, Andris Eglītis, Sergejs Djomins, Miķelis Fišers, Paulis Liepa, Inga Meldere, et al., as well as paintings by new and emerging artists.
The section of international contemporary art includes works by artists from the USA, Africa, Asia, many European countries, Latin America, and North America. The collection includes impressive numbers of artworks from Europe, the USA, India, and our Baltic neighbours, Estonia and Lithuania.
Internationally recognized artists represented in the Collection include Rashid Johnson, Chaz Guest, Miriam Cahn, Hayv Kahraman, Claire Tabouret, Donna Huanca, Simon Fujiwara, Friedrich Kunath, Katherine Bradford, Emily Mae Smith, Lesley Vance and others.
The collection is also increasingly focusing on a younger generation of painters such as Ana Benaroya, Oli Epp, Pieter Jennes, Vojtěch Kovařík, Kat Lyons, Ebecho Muslimova, Robert Nava, Yaerim Ryu, Paolo Salvador, Ben Sledsens, and others.
