Great Art in a Small Format

In Latvia spring is in full swing. After visiting various places, we can state that our Latvia is beautiful in all sesons. Covid time was really depressive, but now the list of cultural events  offers a wealth of treasures. The eye gets caught by an exhibition title that also  includes a short explanatory answer: Great Art in a Small Format.

It is an experiment during the 30 years of the gallery’s existence. Take, for instance, the artwork (12 x 7,5 cm)  by Kārlis Padegs or the seascape (10 x 12cm) by Jūlijs Feders. Who can affirm that large-size canvases show more talent and mastership than small- size ones? On display is an oustanding collection of sketches and studies by Jānis Osis, a marine painter of a nearly  genius.  His „Fishermen” once represented the art of the large Soviet country in the USSR pavilion in Venice Biennial.  We failed to find  out where the artwork is now, whether in the Tretyakov Gallery  or the USSR Art Fund,or depositaries of the Artists’ Union near Moscow. The great painting was Jānis Osis’ graduation work. Though it was   asssessed only with a „4”, Moscow purchased it for the Tretyakov Gallery. During the process of its creation lots of studies and sketches were made depicting numerous fihermen’s tools,outfits, nets, ships and  fishermen’s portraits and seaside villages. Miervaldis Polis remembers that everything was painted by using only three colours. A few years ago an excellent book on Jānis Osis by Ilze Konstante was published.If you have missed it, I could recommend to find it and read  as it provides a lot for conclusions and considerations on how often talent can  be a burden and close the doors through which a mediocrity passes easily. But the exhibition is not on a sad note. It also presents paintings by Andris Eglītis from the series „Through the Darkness”, which take us through a dark November tunnel to the dazzling white snowy morning light. This small-format cycle is painted in the open air. Dace Lielā, a master of large-size paintings, has displayed a few ones in an  uncharacteristic  format of her.

I won’t mention any more artists, to avoid a long list , and besides, the whole display is subject to a change.