The exhibition “ ILLUSION OF TENDERNESS” from the painting collection of Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre.

The once dominant view of the female nature as inherently tender, delicate and docile is now increasingly contested as subjective and delusional, rooted in man-made myth rather than objective reality. The present-day image of a modern female is deeply dissonant with past conceptions as it incorporates new qualities, perspectives and features.

And yet, is tenderness really a mere illusion?

The exhibition “Illusion of tenderness” from the collection of Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre is an ode to womanhood, an attempt to unveil and celebrate its mysterious nature. Through different means of artistic expression, selected artwork captures the image of womanhood as perceived by the featured artists. The woman as an object of nature, a shadowy form emerging from the mists, even a metaphysical creature is the central figure in selected artwork by Silvija Šmidkena (Latvia), Diana Rudokiene (Lithuania), Oleh Bezyuk (Ukraine), Iwona Zawadzka (Poland) and Atsuhide Ito (Japan).