Staprāns: Remembering a Master Painter | [News Outlet Name]

Staprāns was born on October 13th, 1926, to a doctor and a teacher. At the end of World War II, in 1944, he and his parents and brother fled to Germany, and three years later they went to the United States.

While living as a refugee in Germany, Staprāns studied at the Latvian Art Studio in Esslingen, and in the United States, he earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and dramaturgy from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1952. Staprāns also earned a master’s degree in painting from the University of California at Berkeley, which was considered the cradle of abstract expressionism at the time.

He spent most of his life in San Francisco, California. In parallel with painting, Staprāns wrote plays – at first in English, but later in Latvian, so as not to lose his native language. Staprāns’ plays mostly deal with major events in Latvian history; in 1998, his collection of plays “Četras dienas jūnija un citas lugas” (Forty Days in June and Other Plays) was published in Latvia.

In 1972, Staprāns’ first solo exhibition was held in Rīga, which was closed the very next day, with its supposedly dangerously decadent Western influence cited as a reason. After regaining independence, three of his solo exhibitions were held in Latvia, the most extensive of which was in 2006 at the Latvian National Museum of Art. In 2002, Staprāns was appointed an officer of the Order of the Three Stars.

Staprans’ painting style has been described as ‘abstract realism’ and his paintings are characterized by compositional tension and a tendency towards simplicity, bright colours and colour contrasts. The special light of California has become a calling card of Staprāns’ painting along with his favorite motifs – the California Pacific coast with its boat docks and anonymous buildings.

Our condolences to his family, friends and many admirers.

Tell us about a mistake