Heroes 2001
This exhibit represents the selection of a new conceptions image that has replaced the earlier intuitive choice and which can be noticed when seeing the creative work in progress. This time also in Ritums new five painting collection a specific character takes center stage – the hero
The paintings seen for the first time appear to be ornamentally decorative – masked by an optical metamorphosis. The fragments of refined faces that can be seen hide the mystery of the paintings. Which gives rise to various questions and acknowledgments associated with genre painting. Interest is aroused, for example, about the specific image and its general relation to the work or about the majestic cloning effect typical of this type of portrait.
That’s why it is especially interesting to note the artist’s choice of conception images used at this time. On the one hand – it reveals Ritums modest insight as to the overall effect of the portrait, on the other, it arouses a positive flow of association in the observer. The explanation of this is very simple – in the row of apparently incognito faces the observer can recognize images already seen before: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (1503/06), Johannes Vermeer’s Meise met de Parel/Girl with a Pearl Earring (1662/1665), Rembrandt (Harmensz.) van Rijn’s Self Portrait (1660), Jean Auguste Dominique Ingress’s Mlle Caroline Riviere (1805).
This specific collection of creative works reflects the influence of education, as well as, the road taken in seeking better comprehension of art. The selected creative works of artists from the past reveals that Ritums has the ability to capture the light in just the right way which links him with Rembrandt, forming a structure of artificial frames brings him closer to the master Leonard, but the use of photographs and the experimentation with pose – Vermeer and idealism – Ingres.
Text: Mag.art Ieva Kalniņa