Normunds Braslins

Normunds Braslins (1962)


Following his artistic feeling, Normunds Braslins has established himself in a “territory” of art ruled by a timeless classical tradition – universal values, ideal beauty, harmony and perfection, a longing for a “golden age”. While remaining faithful to classical genres and traditional themes, figuralism and the integrity of craft, his art combines a preference for past heritage with the search for pure form and a desire to contemporize the classical mode of expression.

The author has polished his individual style in constant studies of the old masters, while also analyzing visual reality by a creative use of his experience in black-and-white photography and photo sessions with models. In the assimilation and recreation of impressions acquired in “museum art”, he has mostly been attracted by masters of the Early Renaissance, finding a similar sense of form, spiritual saturation and understanding of craft in their works. As in the art of the Renaissance and Classicism, Normunds Brasliņš is interested in the human figure. (Aija Braslina)

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" In my development, I've traced a very wide circle. In my student years, I began with the Dutch - with Willem Claeszoon Heda - followed by the 14th - 15th century Italian and Northern Renaissance masters... Immediately after my studies at the Academy, I even went as far as abstract art. And then I gradually returned to my realism, and I' ve never been particularly concerned with fashion trends in art.

" I'm interested in Antonello da Messina, Paolo Uccello, Andrea Mantegna, Jacopo Pontormo, Lucas Cranach and others. I am influenced by the compositional clarity of the Renaissance artists, and I study the approach to particular, specific formal problems in their work, which helps resolve significant questions that I encounter. But all of this relates to painting, since drawing is a different matter altogether. "

" I've reached the conclusion that the drawing process is much more attractive: the nand can follow the mind, and in the course of drawing, the idea can be visualised immediately. Apart from this, drawing is easier not in terms of the process, but in terms of perception, since you can penetrate deeper into a drawing, introducing more ambiquity and achieving linear, tonal and abstract elements."

" I'm creating an image of my own. In order to produce this in painting, you need about 100 different details. But when drawing, the hand picks up even the most minute thought processes, changes and movements. When you're drawing, you first see what you wish for in your mind's eye and then put it on paper. In painting, it's physically impossible to follow though an idea with such precision -'' Normunds Braslins, 2008.