27.03. - 10.05.2025

Galerija "Māksla XO"

Elizabetes iela 14, Rīga, LV 1010

IVARS HEINRIHSONS

 OBSESSION

“The core of the exhibition’s concept is an obsession with a specific motif and form, but even more importantly, a desire to express genuine emotions and a reflection on the times in which we live.
The horse, as a symbol of imagination and plasticity, has been an inspiration since my earliest creative steps. Over time, it has become an object of obsession – seeing the horse everywhere and in everything has led to a laconic sign: two lines representing both form and essence – a code. It embodies both a romantic inclination and a roaring unrest. A desire to rise, race, and run...
In the context of the exhibition, the horses are obsessed with a single idea – to build or to destroy. The recurring elements – order, armature, and equality – address feelings about the fragile balance of the world and peace,” Ivars Heinrihsons.

Each horse created by Ivars Heinrihsons is full of burden. It may be a monumental oil painting, a charcoal drawing, a fragment, or just a line. It’s a SIGN – like a stretched spring full of energy, ready to move forward in the next moment, to rear up on its hind legs in defiance, or assemble in ranks if necessary.
His painting is both an emotional experience and an understanding at the same time. White and black, light and dark, peace and movement – everything is pulsating, attracting, intertwining, and repelling each other…
The first work by Ivars Heinrihsons to be accepted into the Young Artists Exhibition in 1975 at the State Art Museum was a horseman on horseback, jumping through a half-open gate and disappearing into a black hole. It was also the first painting by Ivars Heinrihsons to be acquired by the Art Foundation for its collection. It was also the first work in the “running horses” series, which continued over the following years, developing into a “road”. “This form has become mine! What happens in the subconscious is a secret.”
In the 1980s, Ivars Heinrihsons was one of the young generation of artists who changed the meaning of painting in Latvia. (Ilze Žeivate)

 
Ivars Heinrihsons
Road. 1988, oil on cardboard, 170x275 cm

“The essence of the painting “Road” is shaped by dramatic moods that wind through the history of a land haunted by foreign powers. The intensified expression of the horse’s image acts as a symbolic element in the painting, representing spiritual aspirations, the hopes of an oppressed nation, and the desire for freedom – from darkness, through ghosts and sacrifices, towards light. Over the dead, across the battlefield, a white road emerges, and above everyone’s heads, the new horse races (the new age).”

“The moment when the aware self as an artist emerges is when you no longer think about what people expect from you or what is demanded, but instead, something inside you… that you can’t express in words.
It is art. Something is detached from the routine, and it gains the confidence that I can trust it,” Ivars Heinrihsons.

Ivars Heinrihsons (1945) – painter, pedagogue, Professor at the Art Academy of Latvia, and Commander of The Order of the Three Stars (2007).