The First Ante Mortem Solo Exhibition. Riga
Juris Tifentals. Paintings. The First Ante Mortem Solo Exhibition (Pirmā pirmsnāves personālizstāde), Jānis Rainis Museum of Literature and Art History, Riga, August 4—September 4, 1994. Exhibition design by Valdemārs Helmanis.
The artist’s dark sense of humor shaped the title of his first solo exhibition as an “ante mortem” (literally before death or opposite to “posthumous”). The invitation as well as the poster of the exhibition, designed by the artist, featured an oversize tombstone with the artist’s name and year of birth engraved. The black ribbon across one corner has the word, l’arriere-garde, Tifentals’ self-designed characterization of his practice (directly opposite to the avant-garde).
Juris Tifentals at the exhibition. August 27, 1994.
Juris Tifentals. Myself in the Fall of 1980 (1980), oil on cardboard, 49 x 38.5 cm.
Exhibition opening. August 4, 1994.
Zenta Dzividzinska at the exhibition opening. August 4, 1994.
Friends reunion with the artist. August 27, 1994.
Juris Tifentals, Zenta Dzividzinska, and Alise Tifentale at the exhibition. August 27, 1994.
Interview for the newspaper Labrīt, August 16, 1994.
Exhibition review in newspaper Baltiyskaya Gazeta. Courtesy of Ekaterina Vikulina.
