The exhibition Janis Rozentāls has been opened at the Kumu Art Museum. Dance of Life / Day

For the first time such an extensive exhibition of the Latvian art classic Janis Rozentāls (1866–1916), following the Estonian Art Museum (Estonian Art Museum) invitation takes place outside Latvia. “Janis Rozentāls was an artist of both national and international significance, whose contribution to the modernization of Latvian art was crucial. The history of Estonian and Latvian art has developed similarly. Knowledge of the development of Latvian culture in the 19th and 20th centuries can help us better understand our own cultural space. The ambitious exhibition will not only introduce Estonians to a great artist from the neighboring country, but will also give us a broader perspective on how to look at the times of great change, “admits Sirje Helme, Director General of the Estonian Art Museum.

In the cultural life of Latvia, 2016, when the painter’s 150th birthday was included in the calendar of UNESCO celebrations, was declared the Year of the Rosenthal. The main event in Riga in its program was a retrospective exhibition organized by the Latvian National Museum of Art. In Tallinn together with their Estonian colleagues at the Kumu Art Museum (Kumu Art Museum) A new version of this retrospective has been created for the Great Hall. The 139 works of art on display in the exhibition offer a diverse overview of Rozentāls’ creative work. In addition to the richly represented collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art, which covers all stages of creative work, the selection is complemented by works from the Zuzāni collection, Belēviči family and Andris Kļaviņš private collections, exhibits from Tukums and Liepāja museums, Museum of Literature and Music, In the photo collections of members of the Rozentāls family.

The title of the exhibition echoes the atmosphere of the turn of the century, when dance was a popular motif in visual art – both in direct representation and in a symbolic sense – as a metaphor for human life. Janis Rozentāls has “danced” in his individual rhythm and pace with the events of the era, currents of art, professional and personal challenges, “dancing” between reality and fantasy, between artistic freedom and custom works, traditional and innovative, national and European. The artist became one of the founders of local professional art, reaching the horizon of major European art centers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Rozentāls’ work is similar to the mirror of Latvian art phenomena at the turn of the century – almost all genres coexist in it and the aesthetics of modern trends flow into it. His creative heritage attracts with the neo-romantic depiction of the harmony of man and nature, with its beauty and mystery and, as his contemporaries once acknowledged, with his sincerity and ability to look into the soul of the people.

Explaining the phenomenon of his popularity, Latvian modernist Romans Suta about Jani Rozentāls has said: “With his enthusiastic and enthusiastic personality, Rozentāls was the first to arouse interest in the Latvian people in the fine arts.

The two main keys of the exposition are a diploma thesis From the church (After the service, 1894) and the Great Arcadia (circa 1913) – marks the range of Rozentāls’ artistic search – from national realism to the vision of symbolism about the mythical land of happiness. The exhibition features portraits of contemporaries, figural scenes and landscapes alternating with symbolic, mythological and religious plots, which are permeated by variations of popular motifs and images. The presence of the Finnish singer Ellija Forsele – Rozentāls’ ideal woman, wife and model of many works of art – is also emphasized. A separate section of the exhibition consists of a “photo album”, which introduces the painter, as well as “light pictures” of Latvian and German-Baltic photographers, which show Rozentāls’ photographic practice, scenes of the era and family portraits taken by other authors.

On May 13, the Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia to the Republic of Estonia Raimonds Jansons, Director General of the Estonian Art Museum Sirje Helme, Director of the Kumu Art Museum Kadi Polli, with a video speech from Riga – Director of the Latvian National Museum of Art Māra Lāce .

In Tallinn, the exhibition at the Kumu Art Museum – one of the largest and most important art museums in Northern Europe – will be open until September 5.

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