On 27 August, two days after the centenary of Latvian painter Herberts Siliņš’s birth (1926–2001), Birkenfelds Gallery at ZEISS Offices, Dēļu street 2, opened “Herberts Siliņš – 100. Sea. Colours. Freedom.” The exhibition brings together 28 works from private collections, the artist’s palette, and a selection of archival and research materials. Spanning different periods of Siliņš’s career, it centres on three themes that were integral to both his art and his life: the sea, colour and freedom.
The opening event brought together collectors, the artist’s family, and the crew of the legendary yacht “Varavīksne”. Guests were addressed by MŪKU SALA co-owner Klāvs Vasks, as well as Lauris Apsis, head of “Zivis uz Ledus”, which supported the exhibition. The attendance of the “Varavīksne” crew gave the evening a deeply personal resonance, honouring Siliņš not only as an artist but also as their former captain.
The three words in the exhibition title are more than a symbolic summary of Siliņš’s work. Each reflects a tangible part of the artist’s experience and his approach to painting.
For Siliņš, the sea was far more than a recurring motif. He joined the Daugava Yacht Club in 1958 and later became captain of the yacht “Varavīksne”. Harbours, fishing boats, yacht regattas and coastal landscapes were subjects he knew through direct experience rather than observation alone. His own words capture this relationship with the sea particularly well: “You have to go out to sea, feel it for yourself, experience it from above and below.”
The story of “Varavīksne” offers another insight into this connection. Siliņš invested his earnings in maintaining and restoring the yacht, with his son Kārlis also closely involved in the work. Built from mahogany in Finland in 1921, “Varavīksne” is 13.75 metres long and has a 16-metre wooden mast. At 105 years old, she remains seaworthy and continues to sail.
Colour was equally fundamental to Siliņš’s artistic language. After returning to Riga following the war, he worked as a painter and decorator, an experience that helped shape the exacting approach to colour that later became a defining feature of his art. The influence of Latvian painters Leonīds Āriņš and Ansis Artums can be traced in his work, while from the 1970s onwards his paintings increasingly reflected the thick, tactile application of paint associated with Nicolas de Staël. Impasto, saturated colour and energetic brushwork became defining features of Siliņš’s visual language.
The exhibition’s third key theme, freedom, is reflected both in Siliņš’s painterly style and in his personal convictions. Among the works on display is a painting featuring The Freedom Monument in Riga – a subject that could not have been publicly exhibited during the Soviet Union. In this context, freedom becomes more than a matter of artistic expression; it also speaks to personal conviction and independence of thought.
The idea for the centenary exhibition originated with a collector of Siliņš’s work. As museum exhibition programmes are typically planned several years in advance, the initial idea evolved into a different format: an exhibition bringing together works currently held in private collections.
Preparations began in May 2026. Fifteen lenders, including members of the artist’s family, have entrusted works to the exhibition. Some were acquired directly from Siliņš, while others came from his heirs, galleries or auctions. The exhibition is therefore not conceived as a strictly chronological retrospective. Instead, it also reflects the individual choices of collectors and the different relationships they have formed with Siliņš’s art.
For Birkenfelds Gallery director Toms Zvirbulis, this is the fourth exhibition of Siliņš’s work that he has curated, and the first since the artist’s death. Zvirbulis became closely acquainted with Siliņš in the 1990s, although the connection between the two families goes back further. His father, artist Juris Zvirbulis, shared Siliņš’s interest in art, history and the sea.
“If the artist himself had created this exhibition, it would look different. Here, we see the choices of different people, and every work comes with its own story,” says Birkenfelds Gallery director Toms Zvirbulis, describing the principle behind the exhibition.
The exhibition spans more than four decades of Siliņš’s career, from 1958 to his final painting, dated 20 January 2001.
Among the key works are the 1958 landscape “Buļļupe at the Lielupe Estuary”, two large-format Spanish scenes and the small painting “Montmartre”. The latter is also associated with a personal story from the curator’s family. As a child, Toms Zvirbulis’s son described the figures in the painting as “people in colourful jumpers” – an observation that Siliņš himself reportedly found particularly charming.
The 1963 painting “White Sails” has been chosen as the exhibition’s main visual motif. Its imagery of sails and the sea also creates a natural connection with the setting: ZEISS Offices is located beside the Daugava and the MŪKU SALA riverside.
The paintings are accompanied by archival and research materials. The artist’s family has contributed previously unseen photographs, while additional materials introduce visitors to Siliņš’s works held in museum collections in Latvia and abroad. His works can be found in the Latvian National Museum of Art, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne and other collections. Siliņš’s work also attracted attention in Japan during his lifetime.
The Herberts Siliņš centenary exhibition continues the Birkenfelds Gallery exhibition programme at ZEISS Offices, where 20th-century Latvian art is presented alongside contemporary painting, graphic art, photography and sculpture.
Over time, art has become an established part of the everyday working environment. When the previous exhibition, featuring photographs by Ulvis Alberts, was taken down, visitors to ZEISS Offices began asking where the works had gone and whether the walls would remain empty. Their reaction shows that the rotating exhibitions have become something people notice – and have come to expect.
This reflects MŪKU SALA’s broader approach as a business community: creating a working environment in which culture forms part of everyday life and where people can encounter art without making a separate visit to a museum or traditional gallery.
“Herberts Siliņš – 100. Sea. Colours. Freedom.” is on view at Birkenfelds Gallery, ZEISS Offices, Dēļu street 2, until 9 October, Monday to Friday, from 11.00 am to 5.30 pm. Admission is free.
This material was produced in collaboration with gallery Birkenfelds.
Photo sources: birkenfelds.lv and Mūkusala Business Centre
