A pre-auction exhibition of objects of art and antiques is being held at the Rietumu Capital Centre Art Gallery. The auction by Artembassy, the biggest antique house in Riga, will take place on Saturday, 24 October 2015.
Auctions held by the Artembassy antique house, with the support of Rietumu Bank, traditionally have become the most remarkable events for the sale of objects of art in the Baltics; their preparation takes a minimum of a half-year. The organisers tend to offer the most valuable and interesting paintings, sculptures, graphic and applied art objects, which remain topical to this day.
“At present, on the one hand we observe a certain crisis in the offer of first-class works by popular authors in the market of works of art and antiques, and on the other hand, a noticeable growth of demand exactly in this “premium” segment of the art market. With this background, the second and third row artists remain undervalued and ‘underdemanded’ – their time has not yet come. Still, decorative porcelain of Riga masters of the 1920s-1930s and works of Russian artists who lived and worked in Latvia in the same period are in top demand. Apart from this, a perspective in the mid-term run is the so-called Latvian “Soviet modernism” of the 1960s-1970s; we have observed an interest in collecting these items during the last couple of years. All this has been taken into account, when selecting pieces for the autumn auction of 2015,” said Aigars Grinbergs, Head of the Artembassy gallery and organiser of the auction. Among the top lots of this auction there are: the painting by N. Bogdanov-Belsky
Landscape with a Forest River (1920s),
Portrait of a Lady by Vasily (Georg Wilhelm) Timm,
Winter Forest by V. Byalynitsky-Birulya, two watercolours by Alexander Drevin from the so-called “Altay Series”,
Seascape with Boats by Georgy (Georges) Lapshin, sketches of theatrical costumes by F. Fedorovsky, and an Italian landscape by Sergey Antonov.
As always, the Latvian school is widely presented, including its most famous modernist period of the 1920s-1930s. In this connection, a remarkable landscape in oil
Last Sunray by Niklavs Strunke (1938), and graphic works by Romans Suta and Aleksandra Belcova. As to more ‘traditional’ classics, it is specially worth noting excellent works of artists such as Liberts, Tidemanis, Skride, Ubans, Kalnroze and Cielavs.
Latvian modernism of the second half of the 20
th century is represented by an excellent selection of works by Rudolfs Pinniss (including his work of the Paris period
Still Life with Fish), two paintings by Janis Pauluks, as well as a number of big names such as Maija Tabaka, Herberts Silins, Bruno Celmins, Indulis Zarins, Janis Osis, Dzemma Skulme, Leonids Arins and Auseklis Bauksenieks.
Traditionally, Latvian, Russian and European decorative porcelain is widely and variedly presented. Among the works produced by Latvian masters, of special interest is a vase from the Burtnieks workshop, with a depiction of a running antelope in the art deco style, the author’s service in the national romanticism style by Beata Senberga, painted figures and plates of the Riga Kuznetsov Manufacture, and post-war works of masters of the Riga Porcelain Plant.
A nice selection will also be presented in the jewellery and applied art section.
The pre-auction exhibition takes place currently in Riga, in the Rietumu Bank building located at 7 Vesetas Street. The auction starts on 24 October at 12:00.
More information and a catalogue of the auction can be found on the website
artembassy.lv.
Eleonora Gailisha Mass Media and Public Relations
Phone: +371-67020506
Fax: +371-67020563
E-mail:
egailisha@rietumu.lv
