30.09.2009

The exhibition “Presence. Hamsun in Latvia” dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun will open at the Small Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art on October 2, 2009 at 5 p.m.

The year 2009 is celebrated as a memorial year of the Norwegian iconic writer, Nobel prize winner Knut Hamsun (1859-1952). It has been marked with various cultural activities in Latvia, too. Spotlighting the influence of the writer’s personality and link of his creative activities with Latvia, the National Library of Latvia in cooperation with the National Library of Norway organizes an exhibition, which acquaints with the important facts of the writer’s personality and his creative work and its resonance in Latvia. Visitors will be offered a possibility to get acquainted with unique documents from the collection of Latvian and Norwegian libraries and museums, including a lot of accessions, as well as new discoveries from private archives and collections.

The writer’s 150^th anniversary gives the possibility to look at his personality and literary heritage from another viewpoint, to crystallize a new attitude to ambiguous and partially understood events of the past, as well as owing to Hamsun’s perception, to examine the Latvian cultural rites in another aspect. The exhibition will acquaint with the impact of K.Hamsun‘s literary works and his personality in Latvian literature and art.

The writer has embodied the elements of modern novel in the world literature, emphasizing many significant thematic lines, turning to the issues of harmonious coexistence of a man and nature, portraying people, living in a province and town, studying their individual psychology. General characteristics of the writer’s creative work can’t be imagined without romantic chords. Just this aspect was caught by K.Hamsun’s readers in Latvia, because the first work translated into Latvian was his romantic novel “Victoria”, published in 1900, simultaneously in two newspapers.

“A Latvian Hamsun” has been made popular by many tranlators, among whom, Teodors Lejas-Krūmiņš (1871-1947), Lizete Skalbe (1886-1972), Elija Kliene (1896-1978) have given an exceedingly great quantitative and qualitative contribution. The Norwegian writer has influenced not only their professional carrier, but left impact on their private life, either. The exhibits will unveil the testimony of intellectual kinship between the writer and the Latvianizers of his creative work.

Hamsun’s perception in Latvia is not only restricted to the translations of novels. His short stories, poems and plays are scattered in separate editions and periodicals. The culmination of the writer’s popularity is the publication of his collected works in 15 volumes in the second half of the 30s in the last century.

The heroes created by K.Hamsun stirs up associations showing the closeness with the national character of a Latvian. His personages lead an intensive spiritual life, often communicate with difficulties, they are reserved, and parallels can be drawn between human existence and natural cycles. K. Hamsun’s literary heritage serves as an inexhaustible source of stimulus for Latvian writers of different generations. A separate range of exhibits reveal K. Hamsun as a token characterizing Latvian literature in exile. Several tens of publications of the Norwegian writer outside the Soviet occupied Latvia prove it amazingly.

Stage versions of Hamsun’s plays in Latvian theatres left a lasting impact in the Latvian culture, as well as screen versions shot in Latvia and other countries and demonstrated in Latvian cinemas and TV in the independent Latvia and in the end of the 20s century.

The exhibition will give an insight in the formation of the visual image of the writer and his characters. Kārlis Padegs drawings The Cycle of Portraits of K. Hamsun’s Characters (1939), which are at the collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art and have a permanent place in the Latvian art, will be seen at the exposition. K. Hamsun has inspired contemporary artists and their creations will be found at the exhibition- the writer’s portraits made by an artist Valdis Opmanis and bronze medals made by a sculptor Andris Bērziņš.

The exhibition is made in cooperation with the Latvian National Museum of Art, the museum of Writings, Theatre and Music, K. Skalbe Memorial museum, and other institutions. The exhibition has been supported by the Norwegian Royal Embassy.

The exhibition will be open at the Latvian National Museum of Art from October 2-November 1, 2009.

More information: http://www.nb.no/hamsun2009/aktuelt_h09/naervaer_hamsun_i_latvia