Rothko Museum will display experimental contemporary art at “Saules Skola”
At 1 p.m. on Wednesday, 19 February 2025, the “Saules Skola” Daugavpils Secondary School of Design and Art will unveil “Auxiliary Collection,” an exhibition featuring eight Latvian and international artists from the Rothko Museum Collection. The concept celebrates the artists whose creativity unfolds through experimental techniques and unconventional materials.
In museum terminology, an “auxiliary collection” refers to a group of objects such as duplicates of artworks or museum items made for research, education, or exhibition purposes. It can also include under-researched, fragile or time-sensitive works from perishable or untested materials.
The Rothko Museum’s auxiliary collection houses experimental artworks of high artistic value, whose fragile material properties or technical characteristics can compromise their long-term preservation.
The exhibition at “Saules Skola” features select artworks from the Rothko Museum’s auxiliary collection. Created over the past decade, they offer original artistic testimony to the limitless potential of creative thought and highlight one of the most significant challenges for modern art museums today: that of conserving and restoring often delicate and fragile contemporary art.
The exhibition features Kevork George Kassabian (Armenia, Canada), Mika Vesalahti (Finland), Rose-Mari Torpo (Finland), Linda Kozule, Žanna Vērdiņa (Latvia), Edith De Jong (Netherlands), Irena Paskali (North Macedonia, Germany), Stefan Dowsing (United Kingdom, Spain), and Christian Breed (USA, Italy).
The exhibition is on show from 19 February to 30 April 2025 at the “Saules Skola” Daugavpils Secondary School of Design and Art, located at 8 Saules Street, Daugavpils.
The Rothko Museum in Daugavpils is one of the 21st-century’s most ambitious cultural projects in Eastern Europe – a multifunctional hub for contemporary art, culture, and education, located in the historic artillery arsenal of the Daugavpils Fortress. The museum’s collection has evolved with the vision to establish a cultural venue honouring the internationally celebrated American artist Mark Rothko (1903–1970) in his native Daugavpils. Today, the collection has grown to over three thousand artworks across various mediums, featuring Latvian and international artists who expand upon the modernist tradition.
Publicity image: Kevork George Kassabian, “Falling Tiles II”, acrylic on canvas, latex, polyurethane foam, 120 x 120 cm, 2023
