Latvia, land of advertising graphic designers between the avant-garde and Art Deco. An exhibition chronicles them

From March 4, 2025 to February 28, 2026, the Romans Suta and Aleksandra Beļcova Museum in Riga is hosting the exhibition Modernist and Art Deco Posters in Latvia in the 1920s-30s, curated by Ilze Martinsone, and Natalya Yevseyeva. It is a journey through Latvia ’s advertising and art graphics between the two world wars. The exhibition highlights the central role of posters in an era of great cultural ferment, recounting how art became intertwined with propaganda, advertising, and the transformations of Latvian society.The museum thus continues its efforts to highlight the artistic innovation of the period between the 1920s and 1930s an era marked by the creative effervescence of modernism. Romans Suta (Dzērbene parish, 1896 - Tbilisi, 1944), a multifaceted figure and one of the leading exponents of Modern Classicism in Latvia, saw art as a means of connecting every aspect of life in the newly established Latvian Republic. The advertising poster became a favored field of experimentation not only for him, but also for other members of the Riga Group of Artists, who found in graphic design an immediate language to express the tensions and aspirations of the time.

Analyzing the entirety of poster production in Latvia between the wars, a diverse panorama emerges. Alongside the works of well-known artists and talented graphic designers, one finds creations by lesser-known authors and even amateurs. Still, some Latvian posters of the 1920s and 1930s stand on par with the best international examples, with graphic solutions influenced by the European avant-garde and the Art Deco style, which enjoyed great popularity in those years. In the early 1920s, Latvia faced economic difficulties following World War I, while many artists returned from evacuation to Russia bringing with them the ideas of the leftist avant-garde, now recognized as part of Avant-Garde Classicism. In this climate of renewal and experimentation, posters became fertile ground for new artistic expressions. Some members of the Riga Group of Artists approached social-democratic ideas, producing political posters with a strong visual impact, especially at election time. Among the most significant are the works of Jānis Liepiņš, who in the early years of Latvian independence used bright colors, marked contrasts, and figures of exaggerated proportions, in line with constructivist language.

Another leading figure in advertising graphics of the period was Jēkabs Kazaks, among the leading names of the Riga Group of Artists. Inspired by modernist and avant-garde movements, Kazaks developed a style that combined bold aesthetics with extraordinary communicative effectiveness, producing posters capable of advertising events, products and services with striking graphic solutions. One of the distinctive elements of Latvian posters between the wars is the treatment of typography. Artists often designed original typefaces, integrating text into the visual composition in innovative ways. In some cases, each letter was customized with different shapes, sizes, and angles, as is the case in the poster for the Riga Group of Artists’ first exhibition, built entirely on abstract planes and expressive combinations of letters.

In the 1930s, as the modernist push waned, Art Deco gained space in Latvian advertising graphics. Two artists in particular, Sigismunds Vidbergs and Niklāvs Strunke, continued to create posters of great sophistication, albeit adopting a less abstract language than in the previous decade. Their works are characterized by dynamic, often diagonal compositions, large fields of contrasting color, and an extremely careful arrangement of text. While the French tradition of advertising posters boasts such famous names as Cassandre (Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron), Charles Loupot, Jean Carlu, and Paul Colin, there are three great masters of advertising graphics in Latvia, little known to the general public but fundamental to the country’s design history. Alfrēds Švedrēvics, active since 1921 at the Zvans advertising agency, and Raimonds Šiško, who opened his own studio in the 1930s, are two near-legendary figures for experts in the field. Šiško, a member of the Riga Graphics Association, participated in a number of art exhibitions, but the best of his work focuses precisely on advertising posters. They are joined by Oskars Šteinbergs, author of striking compositions that accurately capture the spirit of the times through an innovative and refined visual language.

The exhibition at the Romans Suta and Aleksandra Beļcova Museum offers an extensive and documented overview of this graphic heritage, presenting posters from the collections of the National Library of Latvia and the Zuzeum Art Centre. In addition, the exhibition includes materials from the Museum of Riga History and Navigation, such as original samples of the products advertised in the posters. To make the experience even richer, there will be a change of layout in the middle of the exhibition period.

Latvia, land of advertising graphic designers between the avant-garde and Art Deco. An exhibition chronicles them

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