Rothko Museum launches open call for French contemporary artists
The Rothko Museum has announced an open call for artists from France to take part in a forthcoming group exhibition centred on the legacy of the French modernist painter Yves Brayer.
Opening in September 2026 as part of the Rothko Museum’s autumn exhibition season, the show is curated by the French curator Gilles Bonnevialle. The project takes as its point of departure Brayer’s paintings from the 1930s and 1940s, a period when the artist developed the compositional discipline and structural clarity that would become hallmarks of his work.
Created at a time when Europe was marked by political and social instability, these paintings can be read as visual constructions of order in a climate of tension. Rather than approaching them as direct political commentary, the exhibition proposes to view them as reflections on the resilience of form in moments of historical uncertainty.
In dialogue with this historical material, the Rothko Museum invites contemporary artists based in France to submit works that explore the relationship between form and instability. The exhibition also looks at how visual structures construct space under conditions of geopolitical tension and how they can either stabilise or disrupt our perception of reality. Participating works are expected to respond to these questions as independent contemporary reflections rather than illustrations of a particular historical moment.
Submissions are particularly welcome in the media of photography, video, installation, sculpture and object-based practice. Applications will be reviewed by the exhibition’s curatorial team, who will assess proposals for conceptual clarity, professional quality and their ability to enter into a meaningful dialogue with Brayer’s work.
Application closes on 1 July 2026.
Further details about the exhibition and the application process are available on the Rothko Museum website.
The exhibition is supported by the Daugavpils City Council and Latvia’s Culture Capital Foundation.
Yves Brayer (1907–1990) was a painter, printmaker, illustrator and stage designer, recognised as one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century French figurative art. His work is distinguished by compositional clarity, a carefully structured organisation of space and a confident, expressive use of line. During the 1930s and 1940s, as Europe faced mounting political and social instability, Brayer’s paintings reveal an increasingly pronounced search for visual balance and inner order – an artistic response to the turbulence of his time.
Publicity image: open call’s visual identity
