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IEVA ILTNERE
THE HAPPY CHILDHOOD

07.12.2004. - 18.01.2005.

Ieva Iltnere’s solo exhibition “Happy Childhood” was on view at the Riga Gallery’s first floor from December 7 2004 to January 18 2005.

Exhibition consisted of six Ieva Iltnere’s paintings created during the last year. The artist has used her childhood drawings, transferring particular fragments to canvases. She has been fascinated not just by visual appearances of drawings but also by moods and emotions involved. As the artist admits, her drawings express an idyll – “at home lamp is always switched on, white bread and brick-shaped brown bread put on the table, dad, mum and sisters around, sun is always shining and merry little animals – squirrels, hares – hop about”. Iltnere’s paintings are typified by the artist’s ability to deal with topical contemporary problems on both visual and emotional levels. Also this exhibition shows how childhood drawings have changed with time. The work titled “Nuclear Model” was influenced by the anthropologist Roberts Ķīlis’ researches in which the nuclear family model is to be replaced by the new one called serial polygamy. Contrary to the nuclear model, the future family would be created by different partners who will bring up both their own and their partners’ children for limited periods of time. Unlike under serial polygamy, Iltnere’s childhood drawings feature all family together – like in Ancient Egyptian art, dad and mum are always bigger but sisters – smaller. To create a sense of the past, the artist has made paintings to resemble paper strips turned yellow with time and corners sometimes torn off, or she has imitated fragments of old wallpapers on which she used to draw as a child. Titles of works are poetical and associative, pointing towards drawings’ emotional message that had been important then and retains its relevance now.

Ieva Iltnere (born in Riga 1957) is one of the most outstanding figures in contemporary Latvian painting. She has participated in group exhibitions (most important shows – “Rape of Europe” (2004) at Eskilstuna Art Museum in Sweden, 8th Contemporary Art Exhibition “Art Moscow” (2004) in Moscow, “Latvian Art. The 20th Century” (2002) at Zvolle City Museum in Netherlands, “Gentle Fluctuations” (2002) at the State Museum of Art Exhibition Hall “Arsenāls”, “Witnesses of an Age” (2002) at the Sate Museum of Art etc.) and organised solo exhibitions (“Stories” (2002) at the Riga Gallery, “Ieva Iltnere’s United Images” (2001) at the Gallery “Daugava”, etc.).

In the case of Iltnere’s solo exhibition “Stories” a catalogue was published by the Riga Gallery, including essays by art critics Inga Šteimane and Pēteris Bankovskis and reproductions of artworks. The exhibition  “Stories” was awarded the highest prize of art critics and artists – “Award of the Year” in the nomination “For the best solo exhibition at galleries in Latvia”.

Ieva Iltnere’s paintings are found in collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow/Russia), Ludwig Museum (Aachen/Germany), Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum (USA) and other museums.   

IEVA ILTNERE. Sensible otherness limitation



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IEVA ILTNERE. Squirrels