The exhibition “Symbolism in Baltic art” will open at the renowned Musée d’Orsay on April 9 and will run until July 15, 2018.
Organized jointly by the national art museums of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in collaboration with the Musée d’Orsay the exhibition will introduce the public to the “golden age” of Baltic art through 150 works – paintings, pastels, graphics, lithographs, sculpture – dating from the period 1880s to the 1920s.
In a press conference in Riga, the curators and organizers of the exhibition, headed by symbolism researcher and the author of the exhibition idea, Mr. Rodolphe Rapetti (Head Curator of the French National Heritage), said that the exhibition will reveal the last “terra incognita” in the history of European symbolis, offering an insight into a Nordic way of thinking.
Exposition du Symbolisme Balte au @MuseeOrsay aura lieu au printemps 2018 #Estonie #Lettonie #Lituanie #lv100 pic.twitter.com/okziV7WvGl
— Lettonie en France (@LVenFrance) June 1, 2017
“Symbolism in Baltic Art” will be the first exhibition with which the Musée d’Orsay will formally open its ground floor space after renovation, said Béatrice Avanzi, Curator.
The exhibition has a symbolic meaning for the three countries, as well as for the masters whose works are represented – many of them dreamed of working and exhibiting in Paris, the acknowledged center of artistic inspiration and influences of the time.
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania all celebrate the centenary of the independence in 2018.
The exhibition will introduce the public to masterworks by Janis Rozentāls, Vilhelms Purvītis, Johans Valters, Rūdolfs Pērle, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Ferdynand Ruszczyc, Kristjan Raud and Konrad Vilhelm Mägi.
It will be the grandest Baltic culture event in Paris since 1937, when Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia participated at the Paris International Exposition of Art and Technology with joint exposition of decorative arts. 81 years later, in 2018, the symbolism exhibition will launch “the Baltic season” in Paris, with a series of concerts, seminars, performances to mark the centenary of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
The website of the Musée d’Orsay is HERE.
