15.09. – 22.10.2006
The Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga


Raimonds Staprāns (1926) is a Latvian artist living in San Francisco, USA. Staprāns’ artistic achievement is a powerful example of West Coast painting, which has gained recognition in his native Latvia too where he is also known as a playwrighter.

Staprāns’ creative biography spans a period of more than half a century. His art is interesting not only in the American context; it is an outstanding example of 20th century painting displaying the stylistics of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism and Expressionism. Paul Karlstrom, an expert on Staprāns’ work,

aptly describes the artist’s style as Abstract Realism.
From the aspect of the viewer’s perception, Staprāns’ artistic language is depictive; in his landscapes, still lifes, nudes and heads we unmistakably see a real image yet it has been created using the formal compositional principles of Abstract art. The artist himself is most interested in the specifics of painting – the colour relationships and intensity, and the balance of the composition. The viewer sees Staprāns’ mastery of the language of painting in the sunlit landscapes of the Californian coast and in still lifes featuring quite simple objects such as chairs, tables, bottles, paint tins, flower vases, oranges and such like.

Raimonds Staprāns’ career in painting began back in 1950 with his first one-man show. He continued to be highly active in exhibition work in galleries having several solo exhibitions each year and actively participated in broader group shows. At the end of 2003 Staprāns’ works went on show in an exhibition of 20th century Californian still life painting and in 2006 the Pasadena Museum of Art organised a major retrospective of Staprāns’ work.

The exhibition in the Latvian National Museum of Art will feature 33 paintings by Raimonds Staprāns from the end of the 1960s up to the present day. The artist has always said that although he may paint like an American, he has always felt like a Latvian. The exhibition is in honour of the artist’s 80th birthday, which will be on 13 October, 2006.

Exhibition curator Elita Ansone

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