RIGA.- From 7 February to 10 August 2025, as part of The Generation cycle, a solo exhibition of Līga Purmale, The Garden of Past Pleasures, dedicated to the artist’s fifty years of creative activity, is taking place in the right wing galleries of the 2nd floor of the main building of the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga (Jaņa Rozentāla laukums 1).

Līga Purmale (1948) is an outstanding Latvian painter whose oeuvre shows constant formal and thematic development. Since her early childhood she spent much time reading and drawing. Therefore, inspired by her mother, Vallija Purmale (who was a drawing teacher at the Dundaga Secondary School), Līga began studies at the Janis Rozentāls Riga Art High School (1961–1968) and, following secondary school, joined the Monumental Painting Workshop (1969–1975) at the Teodors Zaļkalns Art Academy of the Latvian SSR (now – Art Academy of Latvia) under Indulis Zariņš (1929–1997). Already during her studies, Līga Purmale announced herself loudly and unmistakably. In 1974, together with her partner in studies and life, painter Miervaldis Polis (1948), she organised their first shared exhibition in the premises of the photo club Riga in the Riga Central Club of the Polygraphics. For the first time, both artists presented their works created in a photorealist style to a broader audience, becoming originators of this trend in Latvia.

After a period of Photorealism (1973–1976), Līga Purmale started painting her surrounding environment in close-up – interior elements (Window, 1978) and garden fragments (Yard Corner in Winter, 1977). With utmost sensitivity, the artist studies the material world, plants, times of the day and seasons. The works represent seemingly restrained yet emotionally observant, casually framed views that simultaneously strive towards documentation of reality and intimacy.

In the early 1980s, Līga Purmale turns to landscape painting, no longer producing close-ups. She strives to depict everything exactly as it is in real life (In Winter, 1981). During this period, the artist started painting her characteristic misty landscapes (Pasture, 1980). Having discarded all that is unnecessary, the landscape became emptier, lighter, and mistier (In the Rain, 1988). This approach reached its culmination in the early 1990s, when the mist dominates and only vague contours of the landscape are visible in the paintings.

In the 1990s, Līga Purmale was fascinated by urban life, its rhythm and environments: cafes, junctions, pedestrian crossings, representatives of subcultures, tango dancers, boxers, and graffiti artists. For example, in her cycle of paintings and exhibition CITY TOUR (2009), which took place in the Riga Gallery (curator Inese Riņķe), Līga Purmale portrays city life as though in a snapshot taken from the window of a tourist bus. This series of paintings shows the artist’s perspective on the contemporary city and its characteristic symbols in a concentrated fashion.

In her 2012 series of works, Flashback, Līga Purmale returns to the principles of Photorealism. Through the prism of her family, the author reflects on the events in Latvian history from the early 20th century until 1975, when she started her professional artist’s career. Purmale drew inspiration for these works from personal memories, family photo albums, books from the home library (on the margins of which Līga made drawings in her childhood), and selected press photographs typical of their time. This dense series of paintings fuses the past and the present.

Later, the artist briefly returns to nature (solo exhibition What’s in the Garden (2018) in the Daugava Gallery (curator Anda Treija)) and paints close-ups, reflections, and plays of light visible in the garden – foliage, flowers, and berries from the perspective of an insect.

The exhibition The Garden of Past Pleasures at the Latvian National Museum of Art summarizes Līga Purmale’s creative work over a period of half a century – from early photorealistic compositions and up to new paintings from this year.

Text by Agnese Zviedre

Each generation belongs to an era. The Latvian National Museum of Art’s (LNMA) exhibition cycle The Generation began in 2016, focusing on art of the second half of the 20th century. The cycle’s programme is realised in the 4th Floor Exhibition Halls and since 2021 also in the right wing exposition halls on the 2nd floor of the main building of LNMA. The exhibitions devoted to many important figures in Latvian art have been held, such as Boriss Bērziņš, Felicita Pauļuka, Daina Riņķe, Henrijs Klēbahs, Līvija Endzelīna, Hilda Vīka, Gunārs Krollis, Džemma Skulme, Romualds Geikins, Daina Dagnija, Jānis Pauļuks, Māra Kažociņa, Inta Celmiņa, Auseklis Baušķenieks, Gunārs Cīlītis, Jānis Aivars Karlovs, Biruta Baumane, Lea Dāvidova-Medene, Imants Vecozols, Rūsiņš Rozīte, Biruta Delle, Aija Jurjāne, Rolands Kaņeps, Gunārs Binde, Līga Purmale. There are exhibitions in preparation for Māra Vaičunas and Aija Ozoliņa.