D. L.: “I paint the water’s state and my state of mind - that is how I might describe my paintings. In spring I paint autumn, in autumn - summer, in winter - spring, and it is wonderful all the time. Light, materiality and the eternal changes in nature are what I try to grasp visually.”
The outstanding Latvian painter Dace Lielā is one of the few contemporary Latvian artists who consistently shape their artistic message within the genre of landscape, while maintaining a close connection with contemporary art processes. The artist herself gladly calls herself a nature painter; nevertheless, it is difficult to avoid the concept of “landscape” - particularly in the context of Latvian culture, where landscape occupies an important place both in visual art and in collective identity.
Landscape has historically occupied an important place in Latvian painting. Jūlijs Feders (1838-1909) is considered an important pioneer of Latvian landscape painting, while Vilhelms Purvītis (1872-1945) is one of Latvia’s outstanding landscape painters and creators of national landscape painting. Although the significance of landscape has changed during different stages of artistic development, this genre has proved surprisingly resilient. It has also managed to endure at times when the continuation of painting genres and traditional art forms themselves was repeatedly questioned. Today, too, landscape is experiencing a convincing return, including in the practices of younger-generation artists.
Dace Lielā’s turn toward landscape, particularly considering the development of her creative work from the post-socialist experience of the 1980s and the postmodernism of the 1990s, can be regarded as a logical process in the formation of her artistic identity. Over time, landscape has become one of the most important characteristics of Dace Lielā’s art. The artist’s regularly held exhibitions make it possible to follow her creative development and observe how both her painterly techniques and her attitude toward nature change over time. Her turn toward landscape in recent decades has become one of the central questions of Dace Lielā’s oeuvre.
Dace Lielā paints everyday scenes of nature, meadows, thickets, forest edges, rural landscapes, ponds and seashores. The artist does not seek impressive or exotic places. Her attention is focused on the seemingly prosaic Latvian landscape, the kind that surrounds us and requires neither a romantic nor an embellished view. The character of these works is defined by a concise composition: broad areas of color form the structure of space, while brushstrokes and the variety of paint application give the landscape movement and rhythm. The tonal treatment characteristic of Dace Lielā’s painting creates a spatially and atmospherically rich environment that affects the viewer not through external drama but through a nuanced mood. Water - the sea, lakes and ponds - has a special significance in the artist’s painting. The surface of the water becomes a space in which the continuous changes of light, color and atmosphere can be observed. This impression is created by nuanced tonal transitions, relationships between light and shadow, and the painterly materiality of the surface. Lielā’s creative inspiration is grounded in observing the surrounding environment, but her works are not simply documentation of what she has seen. Although a photographic precision can be sensed in some works, the painterly image emerges from what has been seen, experienced and retained in memory. Landscape becomes a personal experience transformed into the language of painting.
What lies behind the phenomenon of Dace Lielā’s popularity in contemporary Latvian art?
It seems that Dace Lielā has succeeded in creating a contemporary image of landscape in which Latvian viewers can recognize their own living environment. Her painted landscapes are not monumental and do not aspire to sublimity. They are restrained, concise and devoid of pathos. It is precisely this attitude that allows viewers to see something personal and familiar in them. The concept of “canon” is usually associated with universally recognized values, models and cultural significance. In Dace Lielā’s art, it acquires a somewhat different meaning. The artist avoids pathos and romantic rapture over nature, and this restraint becomes one of the essential qualities of her painting. Emotional impact is created not by the drama of the subject, but by color, light, tonal relationships and painterly materiality. The viewer is invited not to identify a specific place, but to have an experience - to stop, observe and feel the landscape.
Considering Dace Lielā’s art in the context of the canon, it can be concluded that her works contain those values of landscape painting that have become important in Latvian visual culture over time. At the same time, the artist transforms this tradition by rejecting an idealized image of Latvian nature and turning to its everyday, untamed presence. Accordingly, Dace Lielā’s painting not only continues the Latvian landscape tradition but also creates its contemporary version - a landscape in which the experience of today’s Latvia can be recognized. In 2021, the Latvian Culture Canon was supplemented with a landscape section. The Latvian Culture Canon is a collection of Latvia’s outstanding and most significant cultural values. It includes values that characterize Latvian culture in various fields and form an essential part of the cultural experience and sense of belonging of Latvia’s inhabitants.
“Landscape treasures are places and areas in Latvia’s countryside, villages and cities that are regarded as special Latvian values, regardless of their protection status or grandeur. They are landscapes that bring the rush of everyday life to a halt and that we want to experience again. They contain a special message that we want to inscribe in Latvia’s history and pass on to our children and grandchildren.”
Dace Lielā’s art reminds us of the importance of experience and feeling at a time when everyday perception is becoming increasingly pragmatic and fast-paced. Her painting offers an opportunity to stop and see anew what surrounds us. Here, landscape is not merely a depiction of nature - it becomes a space of belonging, memory and identity. It is precisely in this aspect that the special appeal of Dace Lielā’s art can also be found. In her paintings, viewers can recognize not only a specific fragment of the Latvian landscape, but also a familiar feeling - a place, a light, a season or a mood. This recognizability makes the landscape personal while also allowing it to become part of a broader, shared cultural experience.
For the series “Floodwaters” in the 2019 exhibition “Paintings”, Dace Lielā was nominated for the Purvītis Prize. In describing the series, Dr. art. Andris Teikmanis, professor of the Latvian Academy of Art and vice-rector for academic and scientific work, associated it with the urban dweller and consumer of urban culture breaking away from an anthropocentric and technogenic environment in order to encounter the presence of nature. In his assessment, the fragmentary image of nature transforms into a unified message, whose significance is intensified by the context of the era - the growing awareness of nature as one of the most important values in a time of global climate change.
Diāna Barčevska
art historian
