BINDE 100–10
Celebrating the 90th birthday of the legendary Latvian photographer Gunārs Binde, the artist’s solo exhibition BINDE 100–10, part of The Generation cycle, is on view in the right wing galleries of the 2nd floor of the main building of the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga (Jaņa Rozentāla laukums 1) from 21 September 2024 to 19 January 2025.
During his photographer’s career spanning 67 years, Gunārs Binde (1933) has received both local and international recognition, earning dozens of awards for the works in foreign photography salons. The exhibition BINDE 100–10 reflects the artist’s path towards and through these achievements by creating a metaphorical diary of key events, themes and people, while occasionally interspersing the visual narrative with Binde’s personal reflections in both textual and audio format.
Looking back at the makings of the artist, an important role was played by his father’s decision to enrol Gunārs in the Priekuļi Agriculture Technical School to learn the vocation of an electrician. It opened the photographic artist’s path to a life-long affection towards light, which at first took him to theatre. This is where Binde learned the art of light, as he himself puts it in the forthcoming book, becoming a “master of light”. Theatre brought Gunārs Binde together with a companion in the making of staged photography, artist and stage designer Arnolds Plaudis, while almost 30 years later – with his muse and wife Tatyana, together with whom he tricked gravity in the series Flight (1992).
At the theatre, Binde perfected his refined style based on the principles of light and shade, becoming known chiefly with his black-and-white photographs, among which nudes have earned particular attention. Irrespective of genre, the use of colour or theme, for Binde a photograph turns into artwork through the creation of the artistic image. The author stresses: “A picture does not always contain an image. An image is what affects you, makes you crazy, you swoon, you are enthralled. It is a generalisation, ir refers to something significant, it is impossible to concretise.”
From the late 1960s onwards, it was characteristic for Baltic photographers to stylistically play with a poetically romantic atmosphere, creating symbolic images, analogies of figurative meanings and the inner world of emotions. Binde explored these in his series of self-portraits. The subject of human relationships is represented from many aspects in the extensive but, as the author emphasizes, yet to be completed cycle Man and Woman. Meanwhile, in his famous portrait of Eduards Smiļģis (1965) the artist strove to achieve the tragedy of the sunset of an old person’s life.
One of the key moments in the making of photographic images in the previous century took place in the photo laboratory – the exhibition richly presents compositions created over the course of complex experiments, revealing a variety of original techniques as well as the wonders and coincidences created in the process of developing analogue photographs.
The exhibition BINDE 100–10 weaves together the never-before-seen with the long-forgotten; the aesthetical experience is enhanced by the well-considered exhibition design and specially commissioned musical accompaniment that reflects the artist’s boundless creativity and gives visitor the opportunity to momentarily become part of it.
The exhibition is accompanied by the most extensive book on Gunārs Binde’s photography to date, containing an overview of the main themes of the master’s oeuvre and highlighting events, stories and people traversing his creative paths.
About the artist
Gunārs Binde, a classic of Latvian fine art photography, was born on 27 December 1933 in Beja, Alūksne Municipality. In 1957 he earned the qualification of electrician at the State Priekuļi Agriculture Technical School. In 1957 Gunārs independently began learning to photograph, already in 1959 holding his first solo exhibition at the Alūksne Museum of Regional Studies and Art. In 1964 Gunārs Binde became a member of the photography club Rīga. From 1959 to 1963 he worked as a lighting technician at the Valmiera Theatre and Latvian SSR State Youth Theatre in Riga. He also worked as a teacher at the Riga Secondary School of Applied Arts from 1964 to 1975.
In 1965, for his portrait of Eduards Smiļģis, Gunārs Binde was awarded the gold medal at the XXIX Salón Internacional de Arte Fotográfico in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1967, for his photograph Nude the artist was awarded the Grand Prix at the XXVe salon international Albert 1er in Charleroi, Belgium. Altogether, these works, alongside The Wall from 1964, have earned 32 awards in different countries. Many other photographs by the author have received more than 25 awards abroad.
Since 1959, Gunārs Binde has taken part in more than 200 solo and group exhibitions in Latvia and abroad, earning considerable international recognition. In 2009, for an outstanding life’s contribution to Latvian fine art photography and popularisation of Latvia internationally, he received the highest decoration in the Republic of Latvia – The Order of the Three Stars. In 2023, on the initiative of the President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, Gunārs Binde was awarded a Certificate of Merit for lifelong contribution to the Latvian State.
Text by Elīza Elizabete Ramza
About the exhibition cycle The Generation
Each generation belongs to an era. The Latvian National Museum of Art’s (LNMA) exhibition cycle The Generation began in 2016, focusing on art of the second half of the 20th century. The cycle’s programme is realised in the 4th Floor Exhibition Halls and since 2021 also in the right wing exposition halls on the 2nd floor of the main building of LNMA. The exhibitions devoted to many important figures in Latvian art have been held, such as Boriss Bērziņš, Felicita Pauļuka, Daina Riņķe, Henrijs Klēbahs, Līvija Endzelīna, Hilda Vīka, Gunārs Krollis, Džemma Skulme, Romualds Geikins, Daina Dagnija, Jānis Pauļuks, Māra Kažociņa, Inta Celmiņa, Auseklis Baušķenieks, Gunārs Cīlītis, Jānis Aivars Karlovs, Biruta Baumane, Lea Dāvidova-Medene, Imants Vecozols, Rūsiņš Rozīte, Biruta Delle, Aija Jurjāne, Rolands Kaņeps, Gunārs Binde. There are exhibitions in preparation for Līga Purmale, Māra Vaičunas, Aija Ozoliņa.
Text by Elita Ansone
