From April 4 till June 3, 2102 the exhibition „RIGA DURING THE INTERBELLUM YEARS. The Dutch painter Hendrik Valk and his wife Tatjana Kotschergina” will be seen in Mentzendorff’s House
Due to the political battles on the world stage, Riga city has suffered a lot. Just for a short moment it had been bearing the name of the capital city of the independent Latvia. In 1917, parents of Tatjana Kotchergina (a Russian father and Baltic German mother) found shelter in Riga from the revolution.
In 1920s, Tatjana started her studies in Arnhem in the Netherlands, where she got acquainted with the Dutch painter Hendrik Valk. During the interwar period, Hendrik and Tatjana spent several summer holidays visiting her parents – Kotchergin-Von Kleisti family – in Riga and nearby resort Jurmala. A part of Valk’s paintings has been created in Riga and Liepaja.
Through photographies, documents and postcards which the Valk couple sent from Riga we look at the Latvian capital city through their eyes. The author of the majority of photographies is the famous Latvian photographer Peteris Smits (1882 – 1973). Alongside with the Kotchergin family during the World War II he emigrated from Latvia. Like his colleague, photographer Roberts Johansons (1877-1957), he left for the USA leaving behind thousands of photo’s and stereo photographies.
Johansons was born in Aizkraukle. In 1908 he opened a photo studio at Aleksandra Street 104, present Brīvības Street 118. Surprisingly, the majority of original glass plates owned by the previously mentioned photographers has been preserved during the World War II and currently are displayed in the Latvian Museum of Photography in Riga. In cooperation with the Riga museum of History and Navigation and Latvian Museum of Photography, a wide choice of photo’s from the collection of both photographers could be observed in the exhibition. Photo’s often made from the glass plates reflect Riga city and Jurmala resort in the interwar period.
Alongside with the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact (1939), in June 1940, Latvia lost its independence, which was regained in 1991. Symbolically, the last exhibits are the photo with the burning St. Peters Church in Riga and three paintings by Hendrik Valk with mourning women and refugees.
Eventually, in 1941 Tatjana’s parents fled to Netherlands; they died in 1942 and 1952. After the Second World War, Tanja and Hendrik never revisited Latvia. Their daughter Else, who remembers the summer holidays with her grandparents in Riga very well, had a great wish to organize an exhibition in Riga displaying her father’s paintings and her parents’ documents. Her wish becomes true in 2012.
Exhibitions are located in Mentzendorff’’ House, Blackhead’s House and Art Museum Riga Bourse.
