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A major retrospective opens at the Latvian National Museum of Art (LNMM)\u00a0on August 14th marking the centenary of the late Raimonds Stapr\u0101ns, an\u00a0outstanding Latvian \u00e9migr\u00e9 artist and\u00a0playwright.<\/p>\n
The exhibition will run from 14 August 2026 to 17 January 2027 in the museum\u2019s 4th-floor galleries.<\/p>\n
“The centenary exhibition of Raimonds Stapr\u0101ns (1926\u20132026) aims to introduce works never seen before in Latvia while providing a focused yet comprehensive overview of the artist\u2019s career \u2013 from his earliest paintings of the 1950s to the last ones created in the 21st century. In the spring of 2025, the exhibition curator, Dr. art. Elita Ansone, had the opportunity to select paintings for the exhibition at the Latvian National Museum of Art directly from the artist\u2019s studio in San Francisco. The resulting selection reveals the evolution of Stapr\u0101ns\u2019 distinctive painterly language over the course of seven decades,” says advance publicity material.<\/p>\n
At the end of the Second World War, Raimonds Stapr\u0101ns fled to Germany with his family at the age of eighteen. In 1947, the family emigrated to the United States, settling in Salem, Oregon. He studied painting and drama at the University of Washington in Seattle, and completed\u00a0his Master of Fine Arts at the University of California, Berkeley in 1954. San Francisco later became his home, where Stapr\u0101ns established himself as\u00a0a painter with a figurative but minimalist style and a marvellous talent as a colourist. He also wrote Latvian-language plays, many with a historical setting.<\/p>\n
Stapr\u0101ns last exhibited at the LNMM back in 2006, and his reputation has continued to rise in the intervening years.<\/p>\n