Riga exhibition marks centenary of textile artist Rūdolfs Heimrāts

The Museum of Decorative Arts and Design (DMDM) in Riga is hosting the exhibition Mantojums (Legacy) until 22 November, marking the centenary of Rūdolfs Heimrāts (1926–1992), regarded as the founder of the Latvian textile art school. An art review describes it as the most comprehensive presentation of his work to date. Earlier this year the same museum held a centenary retrospective of another textile artist, Georgs Barkāns (1925–2010).

Lesser-known fields

One feature of the show is its attempt to reveal areas of work parallel to textile art. Display cases include material on his collaboration with architects, which has received little attention until now. Only one object from those interiors survives: an outdoor mosaic he made with his wife for the end wall of a residential building at 105 K. Valdemāra Street.

Ceramics are also on view, including a group of tableware made in the 1960s for the Luna café and the garden ceramics Family I–III (1967). Beside them hangs the textile work Pilngadības svētki (Coming of Age Festival, 1969).

Structure and works

The exhibition is not chronological. Its thematic sections – Native Land, Cultural Symbols, Intuition of the Era, Dimensions and Sanctuary of Nature – are discreetly marked on the floor. Figurative works reflect the late-medieval millefleur tapestry tradition, such as Our Forest (1976) and Towards the Song Festival (1960), alongside more abstract pieces such as Midsummer Hill Butterflies (1974). Several works, including Summer (1977) and Play (1986), recall the weaving tradition of the German Bauhaus design school. The sisal piece Sorrel (1974), hung in open space, points to textiles “stepping off the wall” and moving toward installation art.

The reviewer's reservations

The reviewer notes that the exhibition offers no explanation of the roles of Bauhaus or millefleur models, and its information is limited to a traditional introductory text. The claim that his teaching is a central theme is also not fully convincing, since no students' works are shown. The display includes a loom, sketches and drawings. A book is reportedly being prepared for the centenary; the only monograph on Heimrāts was published in Moscow in 1984.