With his work the artist wants to give the viewer a true and deeply felt joy.
In the paintings of Artūrs Akopjans love and tenderness towards the world meet a complex and slightly aching range of emotion.
The paintings are marked by a lively, nuanced palette, by generalised figures and, in some works, by a light, free line.
The lively but very complex palette of Artūrs Akopjans makes his paintings stand out among the work of dozens of other artists. Colour is his means of expression and his strength. The making of his works is an expression of complete freedom, in which nothing is impossible. Nor does Artūrs impose any obligation on viewers and lovers of art, because his chief aim is to give joy with his paintings.
The artist describes his approach to painting like this: “I try to feel what is sounding inside me when I paint. Then I attune myself to this inner music – it is a playing with colours without any set theme, but the play brings clarity, and I understand what I want to paint. And the longer I work at a painting, the deeper I reach into it and the more expressive it becomes. The main thing is to feel this inner music and to carry it onto the canvas as expressively as possible.”
“It is quite clearly visible, and felt too, that nothing begins and nothing ends in the measured rectangle – in the painting. That is so telling of a generation that no longer knows borders in art.” Ingrīda Burāne
The chief means of expression of the Armenian-born artist Artūrs Akopjans is colour, which, carefully chosen, accompanies each new work. Together with refined but abstractly built figures it forms a markedly personal style. A style that leaves a sense of his own freedom, perhaps because he lets his works not quite settle within the borders of the canvas and allows himself to make works founded on joy.
Through some of the works there also runs a spontaneous, naive line that makes an almost childlike, endearing lightness.
The artist does not hold to a fixed concept, painting instead the feelings, moods and thoughts of a particular moment.
About the artist
Artūrs Akopjans
Born in 1969 in Riga. Studied at Terlemezian Art College; in 1996 graduated from the Painting Department of the Art Academy of Latvia with a Bachelor of Arts. A member of the Artists' Union of Latvia since 2000. Since 1986 has taken part in many group and solo exhibitions in Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Belgium, Austria, Denmark and elsewhere abroad, winning international recognition. His works are held in private collections in Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, the USA, the United Kingdom, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Armenia.