Banks, Culture, Financial Services, Forum, Latvia

Viktorija Pelshe and Arthur Nikitin are our contemporaries, whose art has been well known far beyond the borders of Latvia for a number of decades. Their works are presented in collections of the biggest museums and numerous private collections worldwide.

Ties of the long-term artistic and personal friendship unite the two masters - they have known each other since being young and have retained warm relations throughout their entire life. Therefore, the exhibition, which has become another meeting of the two artists and the works created by them, has been named – “V & A. Meeting in September”.

Viktorija Pelshe was born in Moscow in 1936 and moved to Latvia with her family in 1951. She studied at Riga Polytechnical Institute, worked as an engineer in Norilsk, lectured at the Industrial Polytechnicum. In 1967, she graduated from the department of sculpture of the Art Academy of Latvia and, during the period of 1968 to 1992, worked at the art enterprise Maksla.

Her works are in collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art, the Artists’ Union of Latvia, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Ludwig Museum in Koln and in private collections worldwide.

She is the author of monumental works that decorate Riga, the Latvian towns of Kraslava and Preili, as well as Moscow, Tobolsk and Severobaikalsk. Her panel picture ”Man and Space”, hammered copperwork, near the Ostankino TV Centre in Moscow, was acknowledged as the best sculpture of 1980.

The hammered “Daugava” at Riga passenger ship terminal has been meeting everyone who arrives to our city by sea since 1972.

Arthur Nikitin – recognised graphic artist, painter, sculptor, illustrator, designer, Honoured Artist of the Latvian SSR, professor of the Baltic International Academy - was born in Leningrad in 1936. In 1942 his family left for the Urals and in 1947 moved to Riga.

The future artist started his studies at the Medical Institute, but chose to leave it in the third year and entered the department of graphics of the Art Academy of Latvia, straight from the second year.

He started participating in exhibitions in 1958; his works have been presented in Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, Hungary, Russia, the USA, Turkey and other countries.

A cycle of graphic works on masterpieces of world literature brought international fame to Arthur Nikitin. The Queen of Spades by Pushkin, the Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, the Don Quixote by Cervantes, works by Marquez, Prevert and Yevtushenko. The artist is also famous for his portraits of legendary contemporaries, including Josef Brodsky and Mikhail Tal.

Works of Arthur Nikitin are in collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art, the Artists’ Union of Latvia, Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

The exhibition at Rietumu presents sculptures by Viktorija Pelshe and Arthur Nikitin in bronze, as well as graphic art of Arthur Nikitin, works of both previous years and the recent period.

The exhibition can be attended daily on weekdays from 9.00 am 6.00 pm – until 10 October. Admission to Rietumu Gallery is free, as always.