Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

Latvian artist Dace Štrausa will showcase his works in Baku. “The Living Legacy” exhibition will open in the Art Gallery of the Museum Center on May 30, at 19:00.

The event is co-organized by the Azerbaijan Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Latvian Embassy in Azerbaijan and the Museum Center.

The exposition is timed to the 100th anniversary of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the Republic of Latvia, which in 1918 first announced their independence.

The central part of the exhibition is occupied by graceful Karabakh horses, which are considered one of the national symbols, personification of freedom and nobility.

The refined beauty, strength, special grace of the Karabakh horses delighted artists, writers and poets, who reflected in their works the uniqueness of this horse breed. One of the numerous publications on the Karabakh horses noted that "until the end of the 19th century the Karabakh horses were the beauty and pride of the Caucasus, worthy not only of the princely, but also of the royal saddle."

In the Middle Ages this breed belonged only to the Karabakh khans, and the main place for breeding purebred horses was the Khan plant.

Chovqan is a traditional horse-riding game played on a flat, grassy field by two competing teams of players mounted on the Karabakh horses. In 2013, UNESCO decided to include the game of “chovqan” on its Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

It was an unprecedented case, when the role of the animal in preserving the heritage of mankind was recognized at the international level.

The attractiveness of Dace's paintings is not only in the exact reproduction of different suits and breeds of horses. The images created by her are endowed with a rich range of feelings and emotions, which in reality can experience these strong and incredibly beautiful animals. For the artist, every horse she communicated with is an individuality, and for the author it is extremely important that the viewer sees and feels the character of each animal.

For the past two years, Dace Štrausa has been living in Azerbaijan. Shortly after her arrival, thanks to her genuine interest and deep love for horses, she established contacts with many horse owners, paying special attention to the Karabakh horses.

The exhibition exposition includes 29 paintings of the Karabakh horses, each of which amazes with its realistic precision, with which the artist conveys the physical qualities of the animals. Each art work is characterized by an incredible degree of warmth, understanding and respect.

Here is the horse, which the artist took on bail for the time of her residence in Baku, proudly nicknamed Babir. Swollen veins, tense muscles, glistening hair, like an atlas ... It is not by chance that the Karabakh horses are called ‘sarilar”, which means golden.

All the works presented by Dace Štrausa are created by the call of the heart. They are permeated with love for animals and life.

The Karabakh people forever conquered the Baltic artist, whose every work is a hymn of natural beauty and pride. Moreover, through her paintings Dace Štrausa seems to return to her first profession.

In 1981 she graduated from the Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy , having received a specialty of zootechnics. But after a while, from 1988 to 1991, she received an art education at the preparatory department of the Latvian Academy of Arts. And in 2005 she became a student of courses in a photo school in Riga. As the artist herself admits, she realized that she needed additional education to be able to master all the necessary apparatus of expressiveness, faithfully reproducing the images of her favorite horses on canvas.

The exhibition will last until June 4.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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