Atis Ievins

Christmas. 1997, cardboard, mixed media, 18.5x25 cm

1997

The exhibition by artist Atis Ieviņš reminds the very origins of serigraphy technique in Latvian art in the time of the 1970’s. Although Atis graduated the Art Academy of Latvia, Department of Textile Art in 1974 and worked as a press photographer for more than 35 years, he has still invested a lot in promotion and development of this unique technique. The artist usually used his own photographs for making new images. Those were usually documentations of the very intimate performances by Andris Grīnbergs, which were considered illegal at the time. Atis often combinate portraits of his friends and other artists together with photographs of nude models. Cooperation with his colleague, artist Aldonis Klucis, who was educated in technical details of serigraphy, was also an important aspect of the progress of Atis creativity. Both artists did a lot of experimenting with combinations of different colors and shapes, matt and glossy surfaces, relief and texture. Every reprint was made in a different color gamut in order to decrease the specificity of the image and create a spaced, abstract character. Thereby, different solutions of the same composition could make completely different visual and emotional impressions. Today, little defects like the old Soviet paper turning yellow, colors bleaching and leaking, give his artworks a very unique charm and value. His artworks, made using the technique of serigraphy, have been valued to be a very important and specific cultural evidence of that time, in spite of the fact that they all started out just as a marginal experiment. Atis works can be found at the largest collection of non-conformism art - the art museum of Jane Voorhees Zimmerli in Rutgerse University, New Brunswick / New Jersey, USA. Also, at the collection of the burgeoning Latvian Contemporary art museum in Riga, the funds of Latvian National art museum and Latvian Artists union museum. In year 2006, a personal exhibition of the artworks of Atis Ieviņš was held at the museum of Latvian National art, in which the images made in 1970’s were exhibited.