The Latvian Collection
In cooperation with the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art and the Malmö Art Museum in Sweden, from 14 December 2024 to 23 February 2025, an exhibition titled The Latvian Collection is presented in the 4th and 5th floor exhibition halls of the main building of the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga (Jaņa Rozentāla laukums 1) featuring works by Latvian artists from the early 20th century from the collection of the Malmö Art Museum, alongside new, complementary pieces by contemporary artists.
In 1939, the Malmö Art Museum (Malmö Konstmuseum) received as a gift the Latvian Art Collection – a unique snapshot of Latvian art between the two world wars. This collection includes landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and scenography sketches, capturing the transition from the modernist experiments of the 1920s to the Realism that defined European art in the 1930s. Thematically focusing on Latvian nature and glorifying ideas of national culture, the works reflect the cultural policy of Kārlis Ulmanis’s authoritarian regime. After acquisition, the Latvian Art Collection was displayed at the Malmö Art Museum until 1958, but was then removed from permanent exhibition and remained unseen for decades.
To further explore and contextualize the entire ensemble of 47 works, in collaboration with the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LLCA), the collection was re-exhibited in its entirety at the Malmö Art Museum in 2022. Now, 85 years after the collection was first assembled, part of these artworks returns to Latvia for more than two months.
The Riga exhibition is complemented by the vision of today’s authors through eight new contemporary artworks, which highlight overlooked narratives in the Latvian Art Collection and comment on broader issues related to nationalism and the birth of a nation state. These works have been included in Malmö Art Museum’s collection, becoming a contemporary interpretation and extension of the selection of Latvian art.
“The Latvian Art Collection in Malmö not only highlights the activities of the artists of that time and the political situation in Latvia, but also invites us to think about where, how, and whether works of Latvian art are available in foreign museum collections, and their stories – to international viewers,” emphasizes Inga Lāce, one of the three curators of the exhibition.
By researching and adding works to the Latvian Art Collection, the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, the Malmö Art Museum, and the Latvian National Museum of Art are building new bridges of communication thus stimulating a wider discussion about freedom of speech and its fragility, as well as the role of art in politics and the social ecosystem, the creation of museum collections, participation of artists in formulating national narratives, cultural diplomacy, and national politics.
The exhibition is accompanied by a diverse public programme including a meeting with the project curators, a discussion on the fate of Latvian artworks during World War II, an international symposium on the role and responsibilities of museums in 21st-century society, and a creative workshop for children and parents led by artist Ieva Kraule-Kūna. A performance-talk show Carnival by the artist Makda Embaie (Norway) inspired by Jānis Tīdemanis dynamic painting Carnival will take place in February, as well as a closing concert in cooperation with composer Henrijs Poikāns.
