Planned LNMA Exhibition: Don’t Cry!

From July 14 to October 15, 2023, the Latvian National Museum of Art will hold the exhibition Don’t Cry!, drawing attention to questions of feminist discourse in the context of Latvian art. The LNMA is looking for support for the exhibition. Donations to the American Friends of the Latvian National Museum of Art benefit exhibitions such as this one.

The 20th century was a traumatic period in the life of women in Latvia – two world wars, two occupations and the long Communist regime taught women to stay quiet, be strong and endure. In earlier times, talking openly about personal problems was not generally accepted and the feminist slogan “the personal is political” was not yet known. Rudeness and violence, primitive living conditions, state work, household chores and caring for children, husbands’ alcoholism, relationship problems, the taboo surrounding conversations about sexuality – all of that was accepted and tolerated as the norm. It was women’s daily reality, and inequality only applied to class inequality, not gender inequality. This historical baggage has played a role in why feminism as a conscious discipline is only starting to take shape in Latvia in the 21st century.

The exhibition will also examine an earlier period, beginning already in the 1960s, when separate women-artists in Latvia created works, where the representation of women can be seen as emancipated and free, and with the range of subjects in these works developing over time, the artists were able to talk ever more openly about their own lives and the lives of other women. Learn more