Ritums Ivanovs
The portrait has been in the center of Ritums Ivanovs' painting and drawing for more than twenty years and he is among those contemporary artists who focus on the human face, its plasticity and texture, as well as psychological and symbolic implications.
Portraits have been revealed to viewers since the artist's solo exhibitions - "To Be and to See" (1999), "A Girl" (2000), "Heroes" (2001), "Erotic Film" (2002), "Dreamers" (2008), "Stars. Lights On”(2010), and “White light ”(2018). As a public order Ritums Ivanovs has painted portraits of Presidents Valdis Zatlers (2012) and Andris Bērziņš (2018). Along with the painter Miervaldis Polis, Ritums Ivanovs is a consistent contemporary Latvian portraitist and popular in a wide audience.
Ritums Ivanovs was born in 1968 in Cēsis. He graduated from the Janis Rozentāls School of Art (1980–1987), the Latvian Academy of Arts (1987–1994, graduated from the Indulis Zariņš Monumental Painting Workshop, MA – 1996) and Humboldt University in the USA (1994–1995). It seems important to mark that he belongs to the generation that did not have to be anti-socialistic when they started an independent artistic practice, they felt free.
