Vilhelms Purvītis, founder and teacher of the Latvian Academy of Arts (LMA), founder of the Latvian National Art Museum, graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts with distinction. As a reward for his promising performance, he received a scholarship to travel Europe and enrich himself in art. On the other hand, his teacher, artist Arhips Kuindži, donated money so that Purvīš’s classmate and friend Janis Rozentāls might also go on this trip. Later, already as the founder and teacher of LMA, Vilhelms Purvītis seeks and donates funds so that students have the opportunity to study and see contemporary art in the world.
“We continue the friendship of Vilhelm Purvīš and Janis Rosenthal! In the spirit of Purvīš, we are always looking for ways to give students the opportunity to see contemporary art in the world. This year we are starting the young artists award Spring in cooperation with the Janis Rozentāls Art School and the Cēsis City Art School, but in the future we will also invite young people from other art schools to participate in the competition. This is how the Purvīša Museum gives both the opportunity to create and the experience of seeing the best of world art,” says Žanete Grende, head of the Purvīša Museum, regarding the award.
Young artists award Spring will be a creative process, within the framework of which both master classes and the practice of young artists are planned in the birthplace of Vilhelm Purvīš, in Taurupe parish. The result of the internship will be an open-air exhibition on the territory of the Purvīš Museum, which anyone interested can visit for free. In the summer, the works of the exhibition will be evaluated both by the jury led by the artist Jurģ Krāsons and by all museum visitors. The young artist or association of artists will receive a prize of 1,000 EUR for a trip to one of the largest European art museums, as in the days of Vilhelm Purvīš.
“This is an opportunity for young people to merge with nature and art at the same time in the vicinity of Purvīš. We will challenge young talents to allow themselves a new perspective, to overcome boundaries and to believe in their own abilities,” says Ineta Vīksna, the project manager of the Janis Rozentāls School of Art at MIKC NMV.
In the early 1990s, the birthplace of Vilhelm Purvīš Old men was purchased by Dutch citizen Margaret Lestraden. In 2021, Margareta decided to return this property to Latvian society. She thought for a long time to whom to give this gift, until she got to know the fund better Easy team, decided that the birthplace of Vilhelm Purvīš will be entrusted to people from a cultural NGO – the Imantas Ziedoņas Foundation Easy. Fonds Easy On March 3, 2022, on the 150th birthday of Vilhelm Purvīš, an announcement was made that V. Purvīš’s home will be home to the Purvīš Museum from now on. In the spring of 2022, several cultural events took place Old man for cleaning up the territory and the first open-air exhibition of the museum regarding the personality of Vilhelm Purvīš. Currently, together with like-minded people, the Purvīš Museum is being formed in a visual anthropological way, in order to be able to tell regarding Vilhelm Purvītis as a person in art.
