ATP World Tour shall open with Ritums Ivanovs exhibition: art and tennis brought together in Doha, Qatar. The 2011 Qatar ExxonMobil Tennis Open will be staged at Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex from the 3rd to 8th of January and the event will witness the participation of world No.1 Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, holder of the grand slam record at 16 times, Nikolay Davydenko and others
Ritums Ivanovs will present ten new portraits during the Qatar ExxonMobile Open, starting January 3rd, 2011. The subjects of the 2 x 2 metre paintings are a selection of the world’s top tennis players – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Robin Soderling, Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Fernando Verdasco, Marcos Baghdatis and Ernests Gulbis. Ivanovs has been amongst the most promising Latvian artists for several year and his arrival on the international art scene was confirmed by a successful sale at Sotheby’s London in 2009.
The portraits that will be presented in Doha this January strive to express the vast emotional spectrum of tennis players. The artist’s intention has been to capture a moment in time, a fragment of each tennis player’s inner world whilst on court. According to the artist, the intense light projected on the tennis court during matches occasionally reveals a more thorough understanding of the personal battles that each tennis player undergoes. Consequently, light is of utmost importance in Ivanovs work. For the artist, light has a metaphysical quality; it brings out the passion, fear and intensity of tennis players. In addition to inviting the spectator to contemplate on the individuality of each player, the portraits, when approached closer, lure the contemplator to plunge into the artist’s world of carefully chosen tonal harmony and linear precision.
The exhibition “Lights On” aims to bring Art and Tennis another step closer. Today, it is accepted that art is a language of decipherable metaphors whose purpose is to explore, by means of association, the aspects of contemporary society. Whether or not one agrees with such a belief, it will be interesting to see Ivanovs’s interpretation of the charismatic characters and dynamic nature of today’s top tennis players.
Mr. Karim Alami, Qatar ExxonMobil Open Tournament Director, says “We are very honoured to be showing Ritums Ivanovs’ paintings at our tournament. QTF is always trying to offer something different at its tournaments and we think that the spectators will truly appreciate seeing tennis this way in a different light.”
Project coordinator: Elina Gulbe
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More info at eugovs.lv
Tennis tournament: Qatar ExxonMobile Open
