348:, thousands of Latvians fled the country to become the Diaspora. When these Latvian "Displaced Persons" came to the United States and other western countries, they saw in the subsequent Soviet occupation of their homeland, an effort to eradicate Latvian culture. But resources are now available, in Latvia and abroad, to provide a substantial overview of art from this Latvian Diaspora period. In Latvia the three main institutions responsible for maintaining such information on artists of the Diaspora are the Latvian National Museum of Art, the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, the Latvian Artist's Union and, especially the World Center for Latvian Art in Cesis. Together, they have begun to complete the history of European art.
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399:. Many of her paintings have been donated to charitable endeavors, such as the Women's Hospital in Cleveland, PBS Channel 13 (New York) and the American Cancer Society. After a June 1969 showing of Peka's work at the Chrysler Museum, Cornelia Justice of the Norfolk Ledger-Star commented, "I recall with pleasure the Lucia Peka oil so innocuously labeled 'Flowers'. With a technique so bold and a color sense so far above average, this should have been given a more flamboyant title."
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332:"The Artist in Exile" is the second traveling exhibition organized by the Global Society, and made its first stop in Three Rivers, Michigan. The exhibit featured work by 24 artists created when these artists were living as displaced persons during the years 1944–1950. After the opening reception on July 24, the exhibit travelled to centers of Latvian diaspora culture throughout the United States.
453:' coup in 1934, a new official Latvian government policy encouraged traditional realism. Artists were required to have a moral stance and nationalistic content in art works, monumentality and positivism, and to turn away from the influence of European art. Two effects of this policy were to discourage artistic freedom and encourage artists such as Peka to leave Latvia.
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In a 1972 interview, Lucia Peka explained that her "outlook on life has always been bright, hopeful and positive with a relentless energy and movement." When asked about her preference for working with oils and the pallet knife, the artist compared her painting to "cooking with butter, both having a
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pioneered the
Latvian landscape painting tradition. which Peka followed. His favored themes included spring floodwaters, melting snow, ice, sludge, reflections of trees. Whereas in his younger days his work indicated a worldview grounded in realism, his turn-of-the-century paintings display typical
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R. Stevens of La Revue
Moderne, commenting on a December 1968 installation of her work at the Galerie Roccia in Montreal, wrote, "Lucia's paintings are powerful and heavily textured. She suggests whole worlds, working with simple but ample strokes of brush and palette knife. Her painting, 'The Well'
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Beginning July 24, 2010, four of Lucia Peka's oil paintings were included in a United States tour, a
Latvian Diaspora exhibition entitled, "The Artist in Exile – Latvian Refugee Art, 1944–1950." In collaboration with the Klinklava Gallery of the Latvian Center Garezers, The Global Society for
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painter well-known in the World War II Latvian diaspora community. Throughout their 50 years of exile from Latvia, these painters kept alive the folk themes of
Latvian ethnic culture in the face of invasion and occupation by foreign powers. Peka and the others attempted to develop an expatriate
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where she was a successful painter of landscapes, figures, and still life for almost 50 years. A touring gallery collection travelled within the US Midwest and
Washington, D.C.(2010–2011) exhibiting a collection of Peka oil paintings along with other Latvian Displaced Persons of the mid 20th
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and other
Latvian-Americans belong as "those artists who amidst the changing trends of contemporary art, after thirty years in exile and emigration, are developing the traditions of their homeland art – of the Latvian or Riga School."
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stands out against the light of a tormented sky, suggesting a feeling of pathetic solitude. Her choice of colors is strong yet harmonious. Her compositions seem almost musical. She may be one of the last great colorists."
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Instead, during the 1930s, Peka and her contemporaries turned to tonal painting, and richly textured, almost scarified surfaces. Here an influence could be noted from the works of
Belgian and French artists, especially
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Latvian Art featured the work of 24 Latvian
Diaspora artists of the 20th Century. The tour included stops across the United States Midwest with a final stop in the Lithuanian World Center in Lemont, IL.
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movement in German painting, which typically employed an aloof, if perfectly detailed, depiction of objects in nature, Neorealists of the Rīga Art Group (including
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in New York. Owners of her work include the
Latvian National Museum of Art, the Permanent Collection in the Alfred Khouri Memorial Wing of the
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After living and working for several years in
Germany, France and Sweden, Peka moved to Canada where she continued her art studies at the
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Lucia Peka won the "Purchase Prize" at the Ford City, Pennsylvania Art Collection. She won the Lila Shelby Award at the
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and Isidore Opsomer. These were the textural and stylistic influences which shaped Lucia Peka. Influenced by
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Interest in Peka's lifetime of work is steadily increasing as more becomes known about the extent of the
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Siliņš, Janis, "The Riga School," p. 89–117. Latvian Humanities and Social Science Association, 1980
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in Montreal, and the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh where her art was exhibited at the
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Latvian art historian Janis Siliņš described the movement to which Lucia Peka,
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By the 1920s, modernism in Latvian art was in decline as artists turned to
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Once she had relocated to the US, Peka was an active member of several
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until her death, in 1991. Interred with Latvian national recognition (
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Latvian national art, following in the footsteps of artists such as
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and tools are available to assist in formatting, such as
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art associations and regional artist groups, including:
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The Story of the Estonian Republic — 1918–1940
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