The exhibition dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the artist Niklāv Strunke “Hello, Niklāv Strunke!” has just opened in Valmiera city museum. The area of Valmiera is precisely the birthplace of the master known as the “most famous Latvian Italian”, but his works in such a large number can be seen here for the first time.
25 exhibits from the Latvian National Museum of Art, as well as the collections of other museums and private collectors, have traveled to the exhibition in Valmiera, focusing both on Strunke’s youth in Valmiera and his lifelong love for Italy. The special highlight of the exhibition are dozens of books with Strunke’s illustrations, which were lent to the exhibition by residents of the neighborhood from their bookshelves in a campaign organized by the museum.
The doors of the Valmiera City Museum open a couple of days before the opening of the exhibition, when the hall still smells of paint and the museum team rushes like ants to finish the installation work. This is the museum’s biggest exhibition this year.
Arta Rozīte, head of the exhibition and events department of the museum, says that during the 130th anniversary of Niklāvas Strunkes, they wanted to remind the people of Valmiera and the guests of the city about the connection of the prominent painter, graphic artist, illustrator and master of other art genres to the side of Valmiera. Strunke was born in 1894 in Poland, but at the age of nine he moved to “Palmeni” in Vaidava and graduated from Liepiņa high school in Valmiera.
Strunke studied with Pāvilas Rozītis and Linards Laitsens at Liepiņa high school, and at the age of 11 he met the artist Teodoras Úders, who encouraged him to turn to art.
Initially, the museum wanted to create the exhibition of Strunke through the scenographies of the versatile artist, building a bridge to the adjacent Valmiera theater. However, it turned out to be difficult in practice, so together with the exhibition’s scientific consultant Aija Brasliņa from the National Museum of Art, a story was created about Strunke’s drastic life changes that took him from Vaidava to Rome. Brasliņa has been working with Strunke’s art for more than 20 years and is pleased with the initiative of her Valmiera colleagues. However, she emphasizes that this exhibition is not a comprehensive retrospective of Strunke’s anniversary.
The exhibition “Hello, Niklāv Strunke!” It will be on display in the Valmiera city museum until November 20. If you are in the center of Valmiera, you will definitely notice it from the outside in the autumn darkness, because in front of the exhibition hall, starting from the castle ruins, retrospectives of Strunke’s best-known works attract the attention of passers-by in special light boxes, including probably the most famous – “A Man Entering a Room”.
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