”Landscape. XXI Century”, a solo exhibition by Art Academy rector, painter Aleksejs Naumovs opens on January 8, 2010 at the Daugava gallery and runs through February 6. The artist has long been fascinated with landscape painting, having painted landscapes while also working on large-size compositions full of color expressivity and dynamic brushstrokes. Although these works could well be considered abstract painting, decorative and emotionally powerful, inspired by Etruscan vases and Murano glass or perhaps only by the emotional experience of music, painting outdoors has always been essential to him. His painting proves that in a studio, it is not possible to accurately depict light and color relations existing in nature. Nor is it possible to duplicate the mood and feeling in nature. Aleksejs Naumovs’ high degree of craftsmanship results from his studies with Eduards Kalniņš and Indulis Zariņš as well as studying nature for several decades. He is known to use any spare moment to take his painter’s kit and catch a plane to a warmer and brighter place to paint. When he is not able to leave, he will seize a moment in Riga. Generally, he spends spring, summer and an occasional sunny autumn in Latvia. Yes, our Old Master Purvītis caught a cold while painting the melting snow, but now, we have got our own school of painting where landscape takes a place of pride. Northern people’s attitude toward nature is exceptional, as already seen in the Renaissance art. The title of the exhibition invites us to look back at the history of art. At first, landscape painting served as a background for religious subjects such as Crucifixion scenes and portraits. But since the 16th century landscape painting was considered an independent genre of art. With each passing century its importance grew until it came to be considered “outdated”. There was a period of time that contemporary painters seemed to have abandoned landscape painting as something belonging to the past. But this appeared to be wrong. Artists cannot do without nature and this is clearly demonstrated in “Landscape. XXI Century”.