In art, the city is rarely simply a backdrop. It is a living environment where the history of buildings, people's everyday lives, and the changes of an era intertwine. The cityscape is one of the most enduring themes in painting, since it allows an artist to reveal not only the character and mood of a particular place, but also a personal attitude towards their surroundings and the time in which they live.
The exhibition invites visitors to see Riga through the eyes of Latvian painters. The selection of works spans roughly a hundred years, and views of the city created at different times hang side by side, showing how the city has changed and how differently artists perceive it. Twenty artists are represented, whose works capture Riga’s streets, squares, parks and architecture.
Riga’s visual identity is shaped by recognisable landmarks: the silhouettes of the Old Town’s towers, the Daugava embankment, Art Nouveau facades, wooden house districts and the courtyards of quieter neighbourhoods. Yet the city's image is also defined by light and atmosphere. In these paintings, Riga appears in mist and rain, bathed in sunlight, in evening dusk and in the lights of night. The artists’ gaze is drawn to both large architectural masses and everyday details, such as rooflines and street perspectives.
The exhibition features works by Riga natives Edgars Vinters (part I) and Janis Brekte (part II). In the works of Brekte, a well-known watercolourist, views of the Old Town appear, while in Vinters’s impressionist depictions of streets, parks and buildings, monumental architecture stands out, with light and shadow playing against each other on the facades. In the paintings of Herberts Silins and Valdis Buss, by contrast, the city is built from colour. Silins’ Riga is a city of vivid tones, while Buss’ painting is characterised by strong, expressive brushstrokes that lend the cityscape a distinctive dynamism.
Other paintings show the House of the Blackheads, the Art Academy of Latvia and the Latvian National Opera, as well as boulevards, bridges across the Daugava and residential districts. The exhibition is designed as a walk through the city, allowing visitors to recognise notable places, notice details that usually go unremarked, see the familiar city in a new light, and find their own Riga within it.
List of artists: Janis Brekte, Valdis Buss, Janis Cielava, Pauls Duskins, Rudolfs Feijlers, Vladimirs Ilibajevs, Nikolajs Karagodins, Rolands Krisjans, Peteris Kundzinbs, Nikolajs Kulainis, Konrads Kikuts, Alise Medina, Ivars Poikans, Herberts Silins, Karlis Silins, Zigmunds Snore, Harijs Veldre, Edgars Vinters, Alvis Zemzaris, Aleksandrs Zviedris.
