The exhibition features almost 300 paintings most of which have been exhibited for the first time.

Boriss Bērziņš (1930 – 2002) is one of the most visible representatives of the culture scene of the second half of the 20^th century. He was always active and outgoing, responsive and humorous. He used to observe life and art, used to contemplate, evaluate and paint and for all his life purposefully followed the tasks he had set to himself. According to the painter’s will, the Latvian National Museum of Art has received the collection of his creative work and the numerous paintings of the collection provide a convincing idea about the artist’s prolific contribution which reflects the uniqueness of his mind-set and artistic thinking.

Boriss Berzins believed that in art there are truths which do not become outdated, he did not look for particular themes or models, but rather created scenes filled with positive irony where he composed and developed scenarios that showed the artist’s figurative thinking and untraditional interpretation of the world – the life around us in the centre of which there was a human being as the painter’s most significant source of interest and research. His vision of the surrounding world makes the viewer admire the artist’s fantastic drawing talent and fully engages us into the world of his themes and images. The works have been performed in various techniques – oil and water colour paintings, collages; works in pencil, quill pen and Indian ink and in ball-point pen convincingly reveal the peculiarities of the author’s thinking and his patient work.

Publicity photo – “Artist and a Model” (1988, solid board, oil, tempera, silver. 137.5x107. Latvian National Museum of Art). Photo by Normunds Braslins.