The exposition is dedicated to an important cultural institution and its employees, whose collection continues to live in the collections, research and exhibitions of the Latvian National Museum of Art.
The representative of the museum Krista Gabrāne pointed out that almost one hundred and sixty years ago separates the first known painting of Jānis Stanislavs Roze “Portrait of Helena Cimze” (1851) from the graphic page “Star Field” (2010) by the American artist Vija Celmiņa of Latvian origin. Both works embody the mission of the centenary State Museum of Art (VMM) and its successor, the Latvian National Museum of Art – to collect, preserve and popularize the best created by artists.
On March 5, 1941, colleagues presented the former director of the State Art Museum, sculptor Burkards Dzenis, with an album with photographs of the museum’s exposition and words of gratitude for the work done in twenty-two years of operation. This album opened the door for the exhibition to the space between the two world wars, becoming one of the main visual and research keys, Gabrāne said.
The State Art Museum, founded on March 15, 1920 and opened to the public on May 27, 1922 in Riga Castle, became a participant in the cultural policy and art life of the first free state of Latvia. The museum, headed by Burkards Dzenis, started its operation in parallel with the Riga City Art Museum, opened in 1905, for which in 1919 the painter Vilhelms Purvītis was appointed director of the German architect and art historian Vilhelms Neimanis. Thus, in the interwar period, there were two art museums in Riga: the city and the state, explained the representative of the “Riga Stock Exchange”.
The exhibition “Our Museum. State Art Museum – 100” provides an insight into the history of the VMM collection and exhibitions. The museum was established with the aim of supporting and popularizing national art as a matter of priority, but the historical situation determined that in addition to Latvian works of art, the museum also had a collection of foreign art from the very beginning, which was supplemented over time.
The Latvian art collection is represented in the exhibition by Jūlijs Feders, Kārlis Hūns, Janis Rozentāls, Teodors Zaļkalns, Jāzeps Grosvalds, Aleksandra Beļcova, Ludolfs Liberts, Kārlis Padegs and others. Foreign art collections are displayed in the exhibition with Chinese and Japanese art objects donated to the museum by Latvians living in the Far East in the 1920s, a large donation of Belgian art as an example of international diplomacy in the early 1930s, Danish glass and ceramics, also samples of Russian art. The exposition also includes photographs, archival documents, books and catalogs.
According to Gabrāne, in 1941, under the conditions of Soviet rule, the Latvian museum system was reorganized. After the Second World War, the Museum of Western European Art of the Latvian SSR was opened in Riga Castle on the premises of the Latvian SSR.
Later renamed the Museum of Foreign Art of the Latvian SSR, then the Museum of Foreign Art, it continued its work in Riga Castle until 2010, when it was included in the structure of the Latvian National Museum of Art. Art Museum “Riga Stock Exchange” is the direct heir of the collections of the Museum of Foreign Art and a continuator of traditions.
The masterpieces of the former VMM can also be found in the permanent expositions of the main building of the LNMM, the art museum “Riga Stock Exchange”, and the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design according to special instructions.
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