The exhibition dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the artist Mihail Jo

The exhibition dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the artist Mihail Jo (1893-1960) continues in the “Jews in Latvia” museum.

Mihails Jo (real name – Meiers Joffe) was born in Vitebsk but spent most of his life in Riga. He was a painter and graphic artist, set designer and theatre theorist, teacher and art critic.

Using drawings, decorations and illustrations, the exhibition presents different sides of Jo’s work. However, the ehibition’s content is not limited to art, as most of the artist’s work has disappeared. The “Jews in Latvia” museum holds a special collection of his sketches, but the exhibition focuses on textual materials: documents, letters and memories. Through them, Jo reveals himself not just as an artist, but   as a person.

The artist’s imprisonment and exile to the Gulag as part of Stalin’s last anti-Semitic campaign is one of the exhibition’s main motifs. Mikhail Jo spent five years in Vorkuta, but he didn’t stop being creative there, either. Sketches created by him in exile have survived, as well as letters from grateful students whom Jo taught to paint in the camp.

Theater occupied an important place in Jo’s life. In the exhibition you can see, for example, his book on the theory of Jewish theater, Theater of Pessimism (1938), a joint photograph with members of the Moscow Jewish Theater troupe (1940s) and a photograph of the scenery created by Jo for the play Day and Night (1927) at the Riga Jewish Theater. It is in this building (today the Riga Jewish Community Center) that you can see an exhibition dedicated to the life and work of Mikhail Jo.