“There are only two institutions in the USA that purposefully pay attention to Soviet art – the Rutgers University Zimmerly museum and the American University Museum. Because of the 50-year-long Soviet occupation, Baltic and also Latvian art is usually seen only in the context of Soviet art. Visvaldis Ziediņš’ works are, therefore, like a breath of fresh air,” says Ieva Kalniņa, the curator of the exhibition.
The “Travels in the Imagination” exhibition will be on display until 26 July.
Visvaldis Ziediņš. Composition with Two Spoons (Object). 1960s. Wood, Indian ink, aluminium spoons and oil. 17x12.5x5cm. Acc.No.950. The Visvaldis Ziediņš Foundation
The curators of the exhibition are Latvian art historian Ieva Kalniņa, the Director of the American University Museum, Jack Rasmussen, and American art historian Eleanor Heartney. The exhibition is supported by the Secretariat of the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council and the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia to the United States of America.
Prior to the opening of the exhibition, a symposium entitled “Visvaldis Ziediņš and the Art of Non-Conformism” will take place at the Embassy of Latvia in Washington. The art historian Alla Rosenfeld will deliver a lecture on “Soviet Nonconformist Art and its Social and Political Context” and Mark Allen Svede will present his paper “An Inner Circle of Outsiders: Visvaldis Ziediņš and Creative Context”. A panel discussion will then be held with both lecturers and the curators of the exhibition, Eleanor Heartney and Ieva Kalniņa.
Visvaldis Ziediņš. Self-Portrait. Late 1990s-early 21st century. Plastic nose, eye and artificial moustache on ceramic brick. 20x13x7.5cm. Acc.No.785. The Visvaldis Ziediņš Foundation
Visvaldis Ziediņš (1942-2007) attended the Decorative Design Department at the Liepāja School of Applied Arts from 1959 to 1964. He did not, however, enter the Latvian Academy of Art because he was confident that his professional foundation was sufficient to devote the rest of his life to creative investigations that would be independent of the official Soviet art system. His inner emigration, through the creation of a parallel personal time and space in which he could follow up his creative ideas, allows us to consider Visvaldis Ziediņš a true Latvian non-conformist.
The artist’s first solo exhibition entitled “Movement. Visvaldis Ziediņš” took place in Riga in 2012 five years after his death. His art came as a revelation to Latvian society in general and art historians in particular, and triggered wide-ranging discussions on the role and standing of artists during the Soviet period. In 2014, his solo exhibition was on display at the KUMU Art Museum of Estonia, making him the first Latvian to be the subject of an exhibition at this prestigious museum.
The “Visvaldis Ziediņš. Travels in the Imagination” exhibition in Washington forms part of the Latvian EU Council Presidency cultural programme which has contemporaneity, uniqueness and excellence as its core values.
