ABOUT MĀRA

 

Exhibition of three Latvian art stars - Māra Vaičuna, Felicita Pauļuka, and Baiba Vegere 

 

The exhibition at Visuma Centrs aims to speak ABOUT MĀRA and showcase the works of the painter Māra Vaičuna (1949-2019). During her studies, Māra gifted pastel crayons to Baiba Vegere (1948), and that's where it all began. Baiba Vegere is one of the few Latvian artists who paints with pastels on fabric. The 'Gladiolas' (1984) displayed in the exhibition is a close work to Baiba, featuring other flowers in the composition, but it was gladiolas that Māra gifted. On the other hand, 'The Painter' (2023) is by Felicita Pauļuka, an outstanding portrait artist and a master of pastel painting. This acquaintance has been significant for both Baiba Vegere and Māra Vaičuna.

Felicita Pauļuka's (1925-2014) 'Māra' (1977) is a delicate masterpiece about silence and Māra. The dry, almost dripping surface characteristic of pastel technique, the closeness of Felicita's hand to the paper, as pastel is a technique where there is hardly any distance between the artist's hand and the color, and the dust radiation from the raised lines of crayons - all of this is Felicita's Māra.

Māra has brought ceramics into her labyrinth of works. One could object that the works have titles, clearly written on the other side. When the work was completed, looking at it calmly, a title was given, and these few lines, emphasizing complete finality, are always encircled by a line resembling a cat, and it is always different. In the serious process, it brought a tone of a smile. There's something else that Māra loved from the heart, French Bulldogs; they have always been there since the completion of the ceramics department at the art academy. What Māra's created ceramics look like remains a mystery; we couldn't find a single one with her signature. Māra painted her ceramics, not fired them.

Ceramics, or rather their linear outlines, are the company of Māra's quiet nature, playing a delicate choreography between intuition and a mathematical task in various ways - the line as the rational core and the undefined time of the painting process as multilayer fields. There are works where the line pattern approaches a coded language, and there are those where Māra reveals herself as a virtuoso and expressive artist. All the painted has the warmth of human presence and the strange peace of sliding thoughts.

 

Ilze Putniņa

LNMM

 

The following works by Māra Vaičuna are exhibited at Visuma Centrs: Lotto. 2005; Felicita's Drawing Board. I and II. 2003; I Don't Know. 2016; Second Breakfast. 2010; Dead Flowers. 2009; Variation on the Theme. I. 2006; Ružciems. Bebru purvā. 2011; Quiet Nature in July. 1986.

 

The exhibition is organized with the support of VKKF and Erica Synths.

The gallery expresses its gratitude to art historian Ilze Putniņa and artist Ieva Putniņa for their involvement in creating the exhibition.

 

The exhibition is open from 23/09/2023 to 23/10/2023.