Mark Rothko’s birthday in Daugavpils culminates with a painting exhibition / Article / LSM.lv

On September 25, when the world-famous artist Mark Rothko would have turned 117 this year, the 16th International Painting Symposium “Mark Rothko” closed at the Art Center dedicated to him in Daugavpils, and an exhibition of his paintings opened its doors.

Despite world events related to the spread of the coronavirus, Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Center again this year invited Latvian, Baltic and world artists to participate in the symposium and create works. This year, seven artists from Latvia, Lithuania and Finland responded to the call.

“Mark Rothko is a personality that Daugavpils is proud of, which the world is proud of. And in general, it is united by one word that we can express in four letters – the earth. ” Symbolically, the words of Māris Čačka, the director of the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Center, at the opening of the painting exhibition on September 25, Mark Rothko’s 117th birthday were intertwined with the etudes of the concert program of guitar virtuoso Reinis Jaunis and cellist Erna Daugaviete entitled “Earth”.

Every birthday at the Mark Rothko Art Center is a memorial to the artist, says Maris Čačka, and it is also a meeting for artists from many countries around the world who traditionally gather for a symposium two weeks before Rothko’s birthday to create works of art dedicated to the world-famous artist.

“This symposium has its 16th birthday, the Mark Rothko Center itself is 7 years old.

We are still young, but thanks to the tradition started by Daugavpils, the painting collection shows this accumulating process, this diversity of painting, the meeting of these different manuscripts. Meeting of Latvian artists with various foreign artists. It is a dialogue that results and passes through the people in the sign of Rothko, because each of the artists comes, sees and especially meets Rothko, getting acquainted with his original works, the artist’s biography, it is a great tradition that brightens and promotes Daugavpils name in the world, ”emphasizes Māris Čačka.

Due to the effects of the coronavirus, artists from further afield, such as Canada, the USA or the Netherlands, could not participate in the symposium this year. The content of the exhibition this year consists of seven artists: Vija and Kaspars Zariņi, Natalija Marinoha and Uldis Čamans from Latvia, Romualds Balinsks and Toms Rudoks from Lithuania, and Rozmarija Torpo from Finland. The works created during their symposium currently adorn the painting exhibition dedicated to Mark Rothko.

The curator of the exhibition, Tatiana Chernova, outlines: “For two weeks, in many dialogues, exploring the place, in creative work in studios where the artists were neighbors to each other, both inspiring and showing each other what was important to her and what they did. have already reached this stage of life.

These are fantastic paintings that can be seen in the exhibition. ”

Inspired by the philosophy of the great artist, the atmosphere of Mark Rothko’s hometown Daugavpils and Daugavpils Fortress, the symposium participants created works for two weeks, and in each of them you can recognize the authors’ manuscripts and places of ideas, says Tatiana Chernova and the artists themselves. Among them is the artist Vija Zariņa, for whom such a symposium is the first in her life, therefore full of emotions.

The artist says: “I felt this time as such a very first adventure. For the first time in my life, I am at an international symposium. I have never taken part in such events. I have always worked in my workshop alone, sharing the room only with my husband Kaspars. I have always had paintings in such loneliness, silence and peace. I don’t paint in nature, I only impress in nature, I collect German materials, but I do my own work in a workshop. It takes a long time, and in nature everything changes quickly. And the feeling I want to put to work, I can’t put it in so fast, I create it for a long time. And the challenges here were, in a relatively shorter time for me, in the oil technique, which slowly dries out when painting works. I started collecting materials and wondering what I could create for this place without deviating from my artist’s handwriting. And this story is about the Daugava, about the bends of the Daugava, one of the most beautiful places in Latvia and Latgale. And yes, I painted it!

It is my emotion, my enthusiasm and my story about the feeling of this place – Daugava, Dvisnka, Daugavpils, Latvia. ”

Although this time the event of Mark Rothko’s birth in Daugavpils turned out to be quieter and less numerous, it did not diminish the presence and joy of watching for art lovers. The exhibition will be open until October 25.

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