On Friday 1 February at Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre will be opened contemporary art exhibition of sixteen artists in painting, photography, graphics, sculpture on the theme beautiful side of truth and the truthful side of beauty.
Art is “generally” considered to be beautiful and “usually” that is reason why people are attracted to it. However, there is another side of art, which tells the truth. Here it is not necessarily beautiful, it might be critical, sarcastic, satirical, paradoxical, even ugly. Yet, truth, in itself, has a sense of beauty. In this international contemporary art exhibition, we try to show the beautiful side of truth and the truthful side of beauty.
The truth (in Latin “veritas”) is the correspondence between a proposition and the reality to which this proposition refers. However, this definition of truth is not the only one, there are many definitions of the word and many classical controversies around the various theories of truth. “Truth” involves both the quality of “faithfulness, fidelity, loyalty, sincerity, veracity”, and that of “agreement with fact or reality”. In a general sense, it stands against falsehood.
“When John Keats was mesmerized by a Grecian Urn, in the end of his Ode, he wrote “Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty”. We might arrogantly claim that the history of art is the history of depicting truth. In this sense, at first sight, considering Umberto Eco’s essay “On Ugliness”, we might disagree with Keats, because some scenes in art are not beautiful by a common viewer. But, on another level, truth in itself is beautiful, even if it depicts ugliness. Art freezes the moment of truth in the mind of the artist. The artist becomes a storyteller and a philosopher who tells a story or a piece of truth in the static immobility of art. Art is passed down through generations and centuries. It exists beyond temporality. Indeed, art endures the test of time or, better to say, it is free from time while being frozen in time.
Without being involved with very complicated theories of truth and theories of beauty, in this exhibition, we try to show different faces of truth. Some artworks fill the viewer with passion and beauty and some depict the horrors of the 20th century in an artistic form.
Chinese Section (Wang Shaojun. Internal Uniformity)
In this group exhibition, a special section is given to the sculptures and watercolours of the artist Prof. Dr. Wang Shaojun from Beijing. Currently, he serves as Professor in China Central Academy of Fine Arts (China’s most prestigious and renowned art university), Master Instructor, Tutor for the Sixth Studio, School of Sculpture, Deputy Secretary of CAFA Party Committee, Member of the Art Committee of National Urban Sculpture, Evaluation Expert for Collections of the National Art Museum of China, Managing Director of China Sculpture Academy, Member of the Sculpture Art Committee, Beijing Artists’ Association. He has won numerous awards and his works are kept in many prominent museums in China and elsewhere.
Western Section:
Nille Bech (Denmark), Dieter H. Frueauff (Germany), Hermann Fuchs (Austria), VCK – Verena C. Kloos (Germany), Wolfgang Kluge (WHAK) (Germany) Helga Kreuzritter (Germany), Edward Lightner (USA), Olena Bratiychuk Linse (Switzerland/Ukraine), Sergey Morshch (Ukraine), Natalja Nouri (Latvia/Germany), Marian Kretschmer (Germany), Elina Sibelia (Sweden), Birdy Tg (France), Jan Vorpahl (Germany), Horst Wagner (Germany).
General Info:
Curators: Māris Čačka and Nour Nouri
Opening Vernissage: 4:00 PM, 1 February, 2019
Exhibition Duration: 1 February – 14 April, 2019
Venue: Mark Rothko Art Centre, 3 Mihaila Street, Daugavpils, LV-5401, Latvia
Organisers: Mark Rothko Art Centre, Latvia; Pashmin Art Consortia, Germany
