EGONS SPURISPhotography4. APRIL – 27. MAY. 2012
Arsenāls Exhibition Hall:
Main Hall
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EGONS SPURIS (1931–1990).
The Latvian National Museum of Art is proud to announce that from April 4 until May 27, 2012, an exhibition of work by the photo artist Egons Spuris will be seen at the Arsenāls Exhibition Hall at Torņa Street 1 in Old Rīga. It will be titled “A Place With an Outstanding View.” From April 4 to May 7, in turn, a series of photographs under the title “Bremen” will be on display at the Goethe-Institut Riga. There are few individuals in the history of 20th century photography in Latvia who have been as important in the development of the visual language of photography as Egons Spuris (1931–1990). This is seen in the fact that when the Latvian Cultural Canon was established, a series of black-and-white photographs from Spuris, “Proletarian Regions of Rīga in the 19th and Early 20th Century,” was declared to be the most outstanding achievement in photo art in Latvia. The exhibition is to contain some 350 artworks to demonstrate the artist’s work from the very beginning up to Egons Spuris’ death in 1990. The central element in both exhibitions is this “place with an outstanding view” – the city to which the artist dedicated most of his work. The two simultaneous exhibitions will allow audiences to see how the artist created his very fascinating viewpoint – one which gave unrepeatable appearance and attractiveness to the most mundane parts of the city. The development of Egons Spuris’ work was very similar to the lives and creativity of other photographers of his generation. The artist was born in Rīga on October 5, 1931. He turned to photography in the late 1950s, and by 1959 he was prepared to stage his first individual exhibition at a photo shop in Suvorova Street (now Marijas Street). In 1962, Spuris was graduated from the Rīga Polytechnic Institute as a radio engineer. People have often thought that this is why his photographs have always been so precise, methodical and rational. In 1962, he became one of the first members of the photo club “Rīga.” During the first half of Egons Spuris’ career, in the 1960s and first half of the 1970s, he was most active, taking part in exhibitions in Latvia and abroad. All in all, his work was exhibited at more than 350 exhibitions in 48 countries. Much attention and recognition were received by works such as the photograph “Inertia” (1968), the cycle “Vibrations” (1967–1972), “The Boys of Jūrmalciems” (1968), and “Bride” (1970). These are all seen as masterpieces of Latvian photographic art today. Spuris’ early work featured powerful contrasts between light and shadow. He made use of the relationship between black and white areas of space, and his compositions were always classically balanced and harmonic. This creative approach did not go unnoticed. Egons Spuris was the first Soviet artist to receive a gold medal from the International Federation of Photographic Art (1971), and in 1975 he received an honorary title from the federation – Artist of the International Federation of Photographic Art. Also in 1975, Egons Spuris took over as artistic director of the Ogre Photo Club in Latvia. While running the studio, the artist also began to put together a targeted collection of photographs featuring the central districts of Rīga. This work, which began in the mid-1970s, allowed him to demonstrate with great conviction “not that which is characteristic, but the character of the place instead.” He particularly focused on the area of the city in which he lived – Avotu, Matīsa and Krāsotāju streets. Although Egons Spuris photographed the centre of Rīga, he depicted it as a peripheral area with quiet inner courtyards, lonely building walls and playgrounds. To a certain extent, it was logical for the artist to approach these simple and very humble motifs, those which might initially seem to be quite unattractive, indeed. It was in this series of photographs that the artist achieved even greater precision in terms of constructing emotionally unassuming images which were nevertheless filled with feelings and moods.This confirmed his yearning for “harsh and poetic imagery.” Egons Spuris ensured that his emotions turned into convincing visual images, doing so on the basis of the diverse and almost inexhaustible range of story lines, motifs and details that he could find in his aesthetically “empty” urban environment. He was ahead of his time in discovering the value of such scenes. Perhaps that is why the “proletarian Rīga” which the artist enshrined became part of the Latvian Cultural Canon and has attracted ever greater attention from specialists and fans alike. The exhibition “A Place With an Outstanding View” at the Arsenāls exhibition hall features photographs from the collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art and from the artist’s family collection. The photographs in the series “Bremen” at the Goethe Institute are all owned by the photographer’s family.
Irēna Bužinska,
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The Latvian National Museum of Art,
K.Valdemāra iela 10a, Rīga LV-1010, Latvija