Kārlis Dobrājs is one of the representatives of Latvian classical painting. His artistic style is characterized by the quality of academic drawing, emphasis on the volume of forms, and nuanced colouring. In his works, the artist always emphasizes the monumentality of figurative painting, masterfully highlighting the central motif of each work: the immutable female form in his nude paintings, the symbolic depiction of ripe fruits and flowers in still-life, and the majesty of the landscape. Dobrājs is a realist who has always held classical art in high regard.
In the early 1960s, the artist graduated from the Janis Rozentals Art School, after which he followed his studies at the Art Academy of Latvia, learning from such prominent artists as Boriss Bērziņš and Edgars Iltners. Early in his career, he dedicated himself with passion to the study of colour, anatomy, and the works of the Old Masters. However, Renaissance art has consistently been Dobrājs’ primary source of inspiration and creative reference, as evidenced by his copies of the artworks by the Old Masters. Renaissance aesthetics and principles became the foundation of his art, especially in his attention to ideal proportions, harmony, and the exaltation of the human form.
“I’m fascinated by the Renaissance, Italian painting. Botticelli, Titian, Michelangelo. I started reading the works of Romain Rolland. Sandro Botticelli and the friar Savanarola. Centuries, epochs, ideologies, social orders, crises, and flourishing. But the relations between power and the artist, human types, characters, passions – these never disappear.” - Kārlis Dobrājs
As a student, Dobrājs became actively involved in artistic life, participating in the most important exhibitions of his time and going on artistic trips. He led several art institutions, worked as a drawing lecturer at the Art Academy of Latvia, and headed the art department of the Faculty of Pedagogy (now Faculty of Education Sciences and Psychology) at the University of Latvia. He was also no stranger to the life of artistic bohemia.
Kārlis Dobrājs (1943) has organized approximately 30 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 70 group exhibitions. His works are held in private collections in Latvia and abroad, as well as in museum collections: the Latvian Artists Union Museum (Riga, Latvia), the Art Platz Gallery (Riga, Latvia), the Daugavpils Regional and Art Museum (Daugavpils, Latvia), the Kraslava Museum of History and Art (Kraslava, Latvia), the Udmurt Republican Museum of Fine Arts (Udmurtia, Russia), the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia), and the Kherson Regional Art Museum (Kherson, Ukraine).