The Architecture of Memory
Born in Jelgava, Latvia, Maija Tabaka’s early years were shaped by the movement of her family to Riga following the Second World War. Her hands first learned the weight of a pencil in drawing classes at the Riga Pioneer Palace, guided by Auseklis Baušķenieks. By 1957, she was immersed in the Graphics Department of the Art Academy of Latvia, eventually moving into the Painting Department. She completed her studies in 1969, presenting a diploma work titled Portrait of the Group of Young Artists. Her presence in the professional art world became constant from 1970 onwards, marked by her membership in the Artists' Union and a series of exhibitions that began to reveal a singular, private logic.
Her work often feels like a fragment of a dream caught in a still frame. She does not seek to document the world as it appears to the eye, but rather as it settles in the mind through memory and imagination. There is a sense of staging in her compositions, where figures and objects are placed with a deliberate, almost theatrical precision. This approach led some to describe her work as a personal theatre, a space where the mundane is stripped away to reveal something more vivid and strange. She treats the canvas as a stage for mise-en-scenes that defy simple narration, using color and form to build worlds that feel both familiar and entirely invented.
The Berlin Years and Shifting Perspectives
A significant shift occurred between 1977 and 1978, when she traveled to West Berlin as a scholarship holder of the DAAD. This period was marked by a unique intersection of political tension and creative expansion. Arriving without an entry visa, she found herself in the Kreuzberg district, working from a studio at Künstlerhaus Bethanien. The atmosphere of the city, with its specific textures and diverse influences, left a mark on her practice. During this time, her paintings began to reflect the tension between the self and an unfamiliar urban environment, often using figures to navigate the feeling of being a stranger in a new landscape.
Her output during the 1970s remains a central part of her history, characterized by several notable subjects:
- Dschungel (1977), which captures a specific, frantic energy within a Berlin nightclub.
- Tina (1977), a work dedicated to those who supported her during her time in Berlin.
- Wedding in Rundāle, a piece that draws on baroque splendor and a sense of historical mystery.
- Various floral studies, including works featuring red roses, tulips, irises, and water lilies.
A Private Language of Form
The textures in her paintings—the appearance of marble, plaster, or flowing fabric—suggest a preoccupation with the way light and material define a space. She has often looked toward the aesthetics of Italian cinema to inform the atmosphere of her work, seeking a sense of mystery that settles over her subjects like a veil. In her paintings, people often appear as figures from another era, caught in a moment of silent, dramatic interaction. This is not a way of escaping reality, but a way of finding a deeper truth within the subjective experience of living.
Her recognition extends through her receipt of the Purvītis Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Art. From her early studies in Riga to her solo exhibitions at the Latvian National Museum of Art, her practice has remained a relentless, daily necessity. She continues to use the medium of painting as her primary instrument, constructing a visual language that remains deeply personal and intensely focused on the internal landscape of the imagination.
