Aleksandra Beļcova

Russian-born artist Aleksandra Beļcova (1892-1981) is known in her homeland only to a narrow circle of specialists. Beļcova lived most of her life in Latvia, where her work received recognition.

Beļcova studied at the Penza Art School (1914-1917), where she met her future husband, the artist Romans Suta (1896-1944), and other young Latvian artists.

Upon her  graduation in 1917, Beļcova left for Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), where she entered the Petrograd State Free Art Studio (1918-1919) and studied with the famous avant-garde artist Nathan Altman (1889-1970).

In 1919, at the invitation of Romans Suta, she left for Riga, where she quickly found her place in the local art environment, participating in exhibitions and other projects.

Beļcova is one of the first modernist painters in Latvia.

Through her creative work, she introduced an original interpretation of the principles of modernism and an original perspective into  the world of Latvian art.

In the 1930s, the artistic, cultural and political landscape changed in Latvia. As a result of a coup in 1934, Kārlis Ulmanis came to power and, just like in other European countries, Latvia’s a parliamentary republic was replaced by an authoritarian dictatorship.

Under Ulmanis, artistic life was centralized and the so-called “National style” was popularized. Many artists turned to ethnic themes. The modernist quest was no longer relevant. Under these circumstances, Beļcova’s work  stood at odds with the trends  of her day – both thematically and in the manner of their execution.

Being outside the mainstream and rarely participating in exhibitions partly explains the fact that in the 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s, Beļcova received scant attention from critics, who wrote relatively little about her work. However, there is another possible reason – the national issue.

Writing in her  diary in the 1940s, Beļcova describes  the detached, distant attitude of local Latvians to her and her work, but notes that Soviet Russians do not consider her “theirs” either. At the same time, the artist was not isolated, she had friends and acquaintances of various nationalities.