A Retrospective Latvian Poster Art Exhibition
03.10. – 19.11.2006


This retrospective in the Arsenāls Exhibition Hall of the LNMA offers a unique opportunity to examine the most outstanding images in the PUBLIC MIRRORS of a 130-year period. This is the first time that portraits of Latvia at various stages of history have been exhibited on such a large scale. Their uniqueness allows the viewer to appreciate both the masterstrokes of artistic elegance and the iron rules of political power. By consciously bringing the relationships between power, art and individuality to the foreground, the exhibition confirms that no other art form reflects these relationships so directly and concentratedly as the poster.

Art historian Ramona Umblija, the author of the PUBLIC MIRRORS exhibition concept and its curator, has selected works whose subjects deal with all aspects of our public life wherever the poster was used to influence public opinion. The exhibition has become a kind of short course on Latvian history told originally and laconically from many sides in the posters of specific periods.

With the help of the most characteristic examples, the exhibition traces the development of the poster in Latvia from the first poster type publications in 1867 to the 1990s. There are some 300 works on show in all. They include the sheets drawn by Rihards Zariņš for the Song Festival, photomontages by Gustavs Klucis, election campaign posters, the most expressive examples of the Stalin era, the first examples of design graphics of the 1960s, the internationally acclaimed works by Latvian poster artists of the 1970s and 80s.

Because of its political radicalism and provocative expression in the 1980s, the poster became one of the most popular forms of art in Latvia. People collected artist designed posters to decorate their apartments and work places; they were commissioned and circulated in various state institutions and their authors received considerable international acclaim.

The situation today is quite different. A new generation of artists and viewers (and those commissioning them) has grown up without knowledge about the paths of development and traditions of Latvian poster art. Artist designed posters are becoming ever more rare in the city environment; in their place we have large scale outdoor advertising whose rhetoric and motifs come from international advertising agencies. The public space of today is being filled with impersonal messages illustrated with equally anonymous coloured images. The absence of the artist’s individuality in the urban surroundings is becoming more and more depressing. On this background the PUBLIC MIRRORS exhibition gives the viewer an opportunity to look back and see the significant developments in Latvia’s self-image through the poster. It also encourages the viewer to appreciate the artistic values of this form of communication.
It is hoped that this exhibition will provide a positive stimulus for Latvia’s young artists inspiring them to create new social and cultural posters with aim to promote society’s understanding of our history and its close ties to culture.

The works on show are from the collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art, the Latvian National Library and the Museum of the Latvian Artists’ Union.

The exhibition is supplemented by textual material on the development of the poster in the world as well as on the major processes influencing the poster in Latvia.

BALLOT-BOX 2
Poster Competition Show

Alongside the poster retrospective at the Arsenāls, there will also be the BALLOT-BOX 2 exhibition of new posters specially designed for the show on topical social, political and cultural issues.
BALLOT-BOX 1 took place in 1995 and was dedicated to the VI Saeima (parliament) elections. BALLOT-BOX 2 is dedicated to this year’s elections to the IX Saeima.
BALLOT-BOX 2 has been envisaged as a competition. A professional jury will judge the submitted works and the best ones will be awarded prizes.
The open poster competition has been organised to promote the creation in Latvia of socially responsible, non-commercial posters of high artistic quality that address society.


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The Exhibition Hall Arsenāls
of the Latvian National Museum of Art
1 Torna Street
Riga LV-1050
Phone: (+371) 7357527
Fax: (+371) 7357520
E-mail: pr.service@lnmm.lv
www.vmm.lv/en/arsenals/