Publications

ANDRIS KALININS

PRUSSIAN BLUE. 2026

“Prussian Blue” is a new series of monochrome paintings in which I continue my long-developed creative position – “Paint as The Protagonist”. The colour is not used merely as a means of artistic expression to create an image, but itself becomes the subject of the work. I look at colour as a material with a specific name, whose physical properties, history of use, and context most often carry references to history, power, politics, and aesthetics.
The work on “Prussian Blue” stems from the previous series of paintings “Prussian Green” (2025), in which the name of the colour and its military-historical associations were brought together with the motif of the Latvian landscape. In this conjunction I was interested in the contrast between a seemingly peaceful, nostalgic image and the historical tension carried by the name.

Prussian Blue No.12. 2026, oil on canvas, 32×24×3 cm          

In “Prussian Blue” this interest continues in a more concentrated and restrained form. The word “Prussian” invites reflection on European history, the aesthetics of military powers, the experience of the Baltic region, and historical traces preserved in language. In this name, different meanings of Prussia collide simultaneously: the extinct Baltic Prussian culture, the later Kingdom of Prussia and its military representation, as well as a contemporary perspective in the context of the Baltic region.
In the English language, which frequently dominates the naming of art materials and their packaging, the words “Prussia” and “Russia” differ by only a single letter. This linguistic proximity became an impulse to think about historical and contemporary geopolitical tension, particularly in the context of the Baltic region and Eastern Europe. In the more recent series of paintings, the word “Prussian” becomes a metaphorical designation for military and political power – one that not only occupies territories, but renames them in its own name. This act of renaming is especially charged in the Baltic context, where place names, language, belonging, and their loss are historical realities.
The colour I examine is chosen not for its tonal qualities, but for its name. The specific name of the colour, its history of use, and its presence in the art materials industry offer the conceptual direction of the series – and I surrender to it. At the same time, Prussian blue captivates me as a painterly material. Its transparency allows for a wide range of surfaces: from light, almost translucent nuances to multi-layered, dark, glossy, and dense surfaces, – Andris Kaļiņins, 2026.