The exposition demonstrates the impressions of young artists from their recent visit to the “Capital of the North”, organised with the support of the Peter Aven Charity Fund “Generation”.
Janis Rozentals Art School, established in 1944, is one of the oldest and the most prestigious educational institutions for young artists in Latvia. At present, apart from the general education school programme, its pupils master the basics of academic drawing and painting, sculptural arts, photography, computer graphics, animation, video art, web design and other trends of classical and modern art at a professional level.
With the support of the Peter Aven Charity Fund “Generation”, in the autumn the best pupils of this school made a trip to Saint Petersburg, where they could attend famous museums of the city and see numerous masterpieces of Russian and foreign artists with their own eyes. The recollections of the pupils are represented on paintings, which are exhibited in the Rietumu Art Gallery.
When opening the exposition, Director of the Janis Rozentals Art School Janis Zingitis emphasised the significant role the artistic and academic environment of Saint Petersburg played in the establishment of modern Latvian painting: “It is symbolic that it was Saint Petersburg where Latvian classical painting mostly originated. Our classics, including Janis Rozentals and Vilhelms Purvitis, studied here – in this city with rich historical traditions. One could say that it was Saint Petersburg where the foundation of the Latvian system of art education, which we can rightly be proud of, was laid.”
“I hope that our pupils will continue this tradition and receive an excellent classical education, which is extremely important, regardless of the chosen style of the mature artist. As we all know, both Pablo Picasso, who is primarily known as a cubist, and a number of other bright modern painters, who originated new trends in art, were excellent masters of classical drawing,” said Mr. Zingitis when addressing the pupils.
Exhibition “Recollections about Saint Petersburg” is open until 14 February on weekdays from 9:00 till 17:00, admission free. Venue: Headquarters of Rietumu Bank – Rietumu Capital Centre, 7 Vesetas Street, Riga. Eleonora Gailisha Mass Media and Public Relations
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