LNMM Receives Raimonds Staprāns Painting as a Gift

Today, on October 27, the Latvian National Museum of Art will become richer by one outstanding painting. Ilona Staprāne will present the museum with her husband Raimonds Staprāns' painting “Bird and Insect”, created in 1974. Currently, the museum's collection includes only six of Staprāns' paintings.

“Staprāns was a low-production artist – he could work on a single piece for months and years, so the collection he left behind is not very large. The value of the artist's works is also extremely high in terms of price, and the museum could not afford it. Therefore, the gift is particularly significant for us to finally have Raimonds Staprāns' collection more widely represented in the Latvian National Museum of Art alongside the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Jose Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, Pasadena Museum of Art, Phoenix Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Art, and the John F. Kennedy Museum of Art. The gift also significantly complements the overall collection of Latvian exile art,” said Elita Ansone, head of the LNMM Collections and Scientific Research Department, to the Skonto media group.

Raimonds Staprāns (1926-2026) is one of the most significant Latvian exile artists, whose art flourished during the heyday of abstract expressionism. No matter how abstract Staprāns tried to paint, he was always drawn to figurative landscapes or still life motifs, and he remained with them, placing himself in the circle of California Bay Area painting. From abstract expressionism, Staprāns learned the architecture of painting. “A painting must be able to stand like a building,” said the artist.

Currently, the remarkable Latvian exile painter's work can be enjoyed in Latvia in three different formats: an exhibition, a film, and a book. Until January 17, the exhibition curated by Dr. art. Elita Ansone, “Raimonds Staprāns. The Architecture of Silence”, can be seen in the fourth-floor exhibition halls of the LNMM, encouraging visitors to engage in deep observation practice to feel the layers, tensions, and relationships of color and form in the artist's works.

The film “The Red Barn” (2026), directed by Pēteris Krilovs, has been released in cinemas, allowing a glimpse not only into the backstage of Staprāns' painting but also into his expressions as a playwright. This year, Staprāns' memoirs “46 Episodes With and Without Irony” (2026, “Aminori”) were published, providing insight into the artist's life and creative pursuits.

At the end of World War II, Raimonds Staprāns (1926–2026), at the age of eighteen, fled with his family to Germany. By 1947, the family immigrated to the USA and settled in Salem, Oregon. In 1948, Staprāns began studying painting and drama at the University of Washington in Seattle, earning a bachelor's degree (1948–1952), and later defended his master's thesis in art at the University of California, Berkeley (1952–1954). Later, San Francisco became his home, where Raimonds Staprāns built his career as an artist and playwright.

Raimonds Staprāns held more than 60 solo exhibitions in his lifetime.