Reflection
Pēteris Martinsons (1931–2013)
In 2026, the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics partners with the Rothko Museum to launch an exhibition series at the Martinsons House gallery to mark the 95th anniversary of the Latvian ceramic artist Pēteris Martinsons. Drawing on works from Latvian and international museum collections, the programme offers a wide-ranging view of the artist’s impressive creative legacy.
“Reflection”, the first exhibition in the series, presents large-scale ceramic works from the collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art, inviting reflection on Martinsons’s formative role in the emergence of the Rothko Museum. In 2012, the then-Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre opened with a major retrospective of Martinsons, which laid the foundations for the museum’s ceramics collection and established the medium as one of its defining areas. Equally significant is Martinsons’s lasting contribution to the development of Latvian contemporary ceramics – a major influence that continues to resonate today.
Anchoring the exhibition is the diptych “Reflection” – early yet assured figurative abstractions where the human figure is distilled into geometric minimalism and archetypal signs. The remaining pieces, created during the artist’s mature years, articulate Martinsons’s distinctive visual language – a synthesis of architectural thinking, sculptural experimentation, and a pronounced engagement with graphic line.
Curated by Valentīns Petjko
Organised by the Rothko Museum in collaboration with the Latvian National Museum of Art and the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics
20 February – 24 May 2026 at the Rothko Museum’s Martinsons House
Publicity image: Pēteris Martinsons “Tension”. Chamotte, engoe, drawing, 72 x 34,5 x 33,5 cm, 1980. Latvian National Museum of Art
