ABSTRACT
Expressionism, as a movement in modernist art and culture, is more difficult to explain in the context of Latvian modernism in the early twentieth century. Latvian artists, with the waning influence of Russian culture and a growing awareness of the influence of Western Europe, began to look more closely at modernist influences. The further development of expressionism as a reference point in Latvian classical modernism was tied to the artists’ searches for an individual style as well as their mastering and then interpretation of the German and Flemish traditions. In the 1920s and 1930s, however, we see signs of expressionism in various manifestations with characteristics of individual styles, but it remains fragmented and divergent. Expressionism provided a concentrated accent that influenced local taste, confirming that Latvian art was connected to and a part of Western European art, and that Latvian artists were now active participants.
