After years of creative exploration and collaboration with the Rothko Museum, Ritums Ivanovs transforms the former military arsenal into a Temple with four chapels. A series of paintings, divided and arranged to fit the structure of the arsenal building, continues the artist’s in-depth interest in the analysis of the language of portrait painting.
The exhibition offers a glimpse into the pages of art history through Ritums Ivanovs' mastery and the intellectual legacy of Mark Rothko. Monumental portraits here become a source of knowledge, revealing the true, authentic, and present artist—Rothko, Rembrandt, and Ivanovs himself. In Ivanovs' work, the portrait refers to a direction, not a destination, pointing to the multi-layered nature and intangibility of self-reflection. The portrait is merely a tool to achieve a goal—a mirror in which to see what lies beyond words and explanations.
Each chapel explores key questions for the artist. Each serves as a space for meditation, where the relationships between the painter and the subject are analyzed through observations of light and color. The central theme of the exhibition is the interaction of three artists. A space for reflection on how feelings, thoughts, and perceptions of self-reflection change and vary.
The Rembrandt Chapel explores the legacy of the self-portrait genre, shaped throughout the life of the great Dutch painter. How can these already established images be re-imagined, creating new sensations of presence and uncovering new meanings? The Ivanovs Chapel, the most stark mirror, displays the artist with special self-criticism and asks: how does the viewer observe the artist, and how does the artist see himself?
The Rothko Chapel is a tribute to the artist during a time when books, exhibitions, and theater performances are discussing his contribution. Yet, how well do we truly know Rothko? How deeply can we understand the true Rothko? Monumental paintings erase the subject-object relationship, leaving only the experience. It is the experience within the Temple. The Temple is a place for self-reflection, mindfulness, and direct artistic experience, because “a painting is not just an image of experience, it is the experience” (M. Rothko).
The exhibition for art pilgrims was also created gradually, with sacred reverence and immersion. Studying Mark Rothko’s unpublished notes in the book The Artist’s Reality, Ivanovs attempts to reveal both the universal tension experienced by all artists and part of his own artistic reality—the techniques, sources of inspiration, and unwavering persistence that shaped this Temple.
Ritums Ivanovs (born 1968 in Cēsis) is one of the most renowned and significant Latvian artists who has gained international recognition. He graduated from the Latvian Academy of Arts with a Master of Arts degree and works in a self-created stroke technique that combines pop art and photorealism traditions. Ivanovs has held more than 30 solo exhibitions in Latvia and abroad and regularly participates in international art fairs. His works are in many public and private collections both in Latvia and internationally. Ivanovs has painted official portraits of three Presidents of Latvia, and in 2009, he became the first Latvian artist in history whose painting (Frame05) was sold at the prestigious Sotheby’s auction in London.
Exhibition curator: Aivars Baranovskis
Exhibition opening on March 7, 2025, at 16:00 at the Rothko Museum (Daugavpils)
Exhibition dates: March 7–May 18, 2025
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