Embodied Thought
From July 17 to November 8, 2026, a major drawing exhibition, “Embodied Thought” will take place in the Great Exhibition Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art. It will be the first large-scale overview in Latvia dedicated specifically to artistic drawing, offering a broad perspective on this medium as an independent art form.
The exhibition will reveal the diversity of drawing and its historical development in Latvia from the 18th to the 21st century, highlighting artists in whose practice drawing plays a significant role. The concept of the exhibition is based on the relationship between drawing and thinking, emphasizing drawing’s ability to create an empathetic experience and allowing the viewer to approach the artist’s thought process.
The exhibition will feature 80 artists from different generations — beginning with Johann Christoph Brotze and representatives of classical art, continuing with leading figures of contemporary art, and concluding with artists born in the 1990s. This broad historical survey will allow visitors to trace the development of Latvian art up to the present day through the personal and fragile medium of drawing, revealing its ability to connect both generations and eras.
Today, drawing is experiencing a strong revival. Despite the rapid advancement of digital technologies, many artists continue to value analog drawing — a direct and tactile mode of expression closely linked to materiality, the movement of the hand, and the scale of the body.
Drawing is an exceptionally diverse medium with a rich historical tradition, whose scope is better approached through a branching rather than a linear perspective. Therefore, following the interplay between drawing and thinking, the works in the exhibition will be structured into several conceptually expansive thematic sections, creating spaces of thought in which the viewer, following the line drawn by the artist’s hand, is invited to immerse themselves in the process of artistic creation.
By establishing a dialogue between cultural heritage and contemporary art, drawing will serve as a link between history and present-day creative processes, while also offering a broad overview of Latvian artists’ approaches and revealing the significant role of drawing in Latvia’s visual culture.