Exhibition of Baltic illustrators
On the 1st floor of the National Library of Latvia (LNB) you can see a traveling exhibition of illustrations by Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian artists “Running with Wolves”.
The exhibition was made in 2018 for the London Book Fair, when the Baltic states were guest countries. Riga is the seventeenth stop on the exhibition’s international tour.
The idea of the exhibition of original illustrations by artists from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is to include in the visual images the theme of werewolves, which is well known in European culture since ancient times and which has maintained its popularity until today . What we can see in the works of artists is probably not a person who has entered into a pact with evil itself, as myths and legends of antiquity show. No, it is a powerful image, ripened in our living, juicy nature, capable of rapid change, capable of surprising and conquering the world with its inexhaustible vitality.
The three Baltic countries are rich in forests, untouched nature and cultivated landscape, equally strong tradition and modernity unite in art, where there is also a place for unusual mysticism. Using a diverse arsenal of artistic expressions and mastering a rich range of techniques, Baltic illustrators have created their own version of a theme deeply rooted in the cultures of European nations. For London, the theme of the exhibition was chosen so that the illustrations would be understandable to people who are unfamiliar with our literature and for whom the content of books published in Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian remains unknown. The newly created illustrations for an easily recognizable story of wolves and werewolves in each artist’s unique and brilliant performance helped to achieve the aim of the exhibition: to allow us to see and appreciate the unique strength of the Baltic book artists and the high quality artistic illustration.
The exhibition brings together the works of 39 illustrators from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Latvia is represented by artists Elīna Brasliņa, Rūta Briede, Roberts Koltsovs (pictured), Gunārs Krollis, Gundega Muzikante, Aleksejs Naumovs, Anita Paegle, Arta Ozola-Junarāja, Reinis Pētersons, Juris Petraškevičs, Anda Strautniece, Gita Treice, Anna Vaivare and Laima Eglite.
The author of the artistic concept of the exhibition is Vive Nora, an Estonian artist and expert curator of international illustration exhibitions, who recounts the idea of the exhibition: «When the wolf was chosen as the national animal in the popular vote in 2018, the choice of the exhibition theme seemed entirely correct and justified. Being under the protection of a wolf, considering it your spirit animal, is a feeling of pride. [..] The wolf is socially intelligent, and so a small nation should be.”
The exhibition can be visited during the opening hours of the LNB until 31 January of the following year. Free entry.
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