Jūrmala Open-Air Museum — Attraction in Jūrmala

STILL LIFE ISN'T STILL Jurmala Artists' Society exhibition in cooperation with the Jurmala Museum's art collection Still life is a genre of fine art or a separate artwork depicting objects of living or inanimate nature arranged in a composition. Still life has been present through centuries - the first compositions can already be found in the art of the Ancient East, yet the Dutch are considered to be the originators of still life as a genre at the turn of the 16th - 17th centuries. In the works of Dutch artists, sensual pleasures are depicted using a diverse range of objects: the rich table setting is complemented by flower bouquets and garlands, gorgeous gold and silverware, and spectacular metal and glass dishes. Fragile materials, wilting flowers, and overripe fruits lead viewers to turn away from philosophical reflections on the transitory nature of worldly pleasures. The works also capture domestic situations - a partially peeled lemon or a stain accidentally left by a knife or fork. The genre of still life experienced a new boom in the peak of post-impressionism in the 1880s and 1890s, as well as in the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, in the heyday of modernism. In Latvian art, still life became popular around the First World War. After the war, the genre experienced a decline and was considered out of date. Reviving in the 1960s, still lifes demonstrated unusual moods, a peculiar choice of subjects, and original settings. In the 1970s, coloring dominated artworks, but at the end of the 20th century, a pronounced tendency towards abstraction can be observed. Still life still hasn't lost its relevance - as the testimony of the era, telling about the times we live in, about the things around us, and the change of perception. In their works, the artists of Jurmala tell about this day, about the simple and the complicated, about joy and experiences, about the known and already tested, and about the still unknown. Through the still life subject narrative, the authors open the door to their world and allow the viewer to look into it as well. This time, the exhibition of the Jurmala Artists' Society, Still Life isn't Still, is complemented by a selection of still lifes from the Jurmala Museum's art collection, covering a wide period of time from the second half of the 18th century to the present day. Each work describes its era, traditions, and style. Three of the selected works in the exhibition come from the Jurmala Museum's golden heritage - Martins Pormanis' collection - Jakob Samuel Beck's Marten with a Bird, Johann Daniel Felsko's Still Life, and Johann Friedrich Franz von Schlichten's Sea Shells. At the exhibition, we will also see works of Biruta Delle, Janis Gunars Kalnmalis, Zenta Logina, Miervaldis Kemers, Edgars...

Small but interesting place in very nice area. Admittance is free. Little parking lot close by. Few wooden sheds / a ropes workshop, a fishermen house, few smaller boats and couple of bigger ones. Picnic place is available for rent. Visitors were not allowed to enter inside the house and workshop - just look through the open windows and dooors. Access to the biger boats was closed too. We wisited the place in June, weather was very nice but it was lot of mosquitoes so repellent would be very usefull. Place is close to the seashore, which is not as crowded as main Jurmala beach. Couple of trails going to different places. Map is installed but trails not...

Great open-air museum, worth going such a long way from Riga. Exhibition is free for all visitors and has some very interesting artifacts such as boats, deep water wrecks, anchors and all fishing related stuff.

If you come from Riga, the best way is to take train to Majori, have a stroll on the beach, then take a bus (3,4,5 or 7) from the main road to Bulluciems and switch for bus no. 1 to the end. Then walk approx. 10-15 minutes. On the way back, take bus 1 to Lulliepa Stacija and train...