LATVIA (2020)- Artist Gustavs Klucis Souvenir Sheet

Latvia Post releases a new stamp block dedicated to the world-renowned Latvian artist Gustavs Klucis (1895–1938). The stamps included in the series Outstanding Latvian Artists feature motifs from the artist’s works and materials from the Latvian National Museum of Art and the Misiņš Library of the Academic Library of the University of Latvia.

To mark the 125th anniversary of the artist, Latvijas Pasts releases a two-stamp block dedicated to Gustavs Klucis in the series Outstanding Latvian Artists with a print run of 20,000 copies and a special cover with a print run of 1,000 copies. The face value of each stamp is € 1.00, which corresponds to the postage of letter-post items in the weight class up to 20 grams within Latvia.

The visual design of the philatelic releases created by the artist Lilija Dinere is based on the reproductions of Gustavs Klucis’ works Konstrukcija (Construction) (1919–1920) and Konstrukcija (Construction) (1920–1921) held in the collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art, as well as the artist’s portrait photographs from the Misiņš Library of the Academic Library of the University of Latvia.

Gustavs Klucis is one of the best known artists of Latvian origin in the world. Initially he was engaged in painting, but in 1918 he took to photomontage, made posters and designed agitation art objects, as well as monumental decorations for public holidays of Soviet Russia. He spent his creative life in Moscow, where the artist gained fame as an outstanding representative of Russian avant-garde art. After the tragic death of Gustavs Klucis during Stalin’s Great Purge, his name was literally erased from the history of art, and it took several decades for the artist’s works to return to exhibition halls.

Gustavs Klucis is the only Latvian artist whose works are exhibited in the world’s leading museums of modern art alongside his teacher Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) and other giants of the 20th century avant-garde art. The world’s largest and most substantial collection of the artist’s works is held in the Latvian National Museum of Art.