Independence in the Art of Shamir Brothers

The initiative for the exhibition came from Israel's ambassador to Latvia, Lironne Bar-Sadeh, who knew that the Shamir family came from Latvia. It seemed to her that the ideal time for the exhibition is 2018, in which Latvia will celebrate 100 years of independence and Israel will celebrate its 70th year. The ambassador asked Yoram Shamir to curate the exhibition and assigned the cultural attaché Marika Pinka to the project.
Shamir's theme for the exhibition is a common theme of 2018 for both countries - independence, in the broadest sense of the term, including sovereignty, culture and language, security and economics. The Shamir works chosen to reflect each of the elements of independence were in all the graphic arts - symbols, postage stamps, banknotes, medals and posters.
It was important for the initiators to present works by the Sheftelowitsch brothers (as they were called in Latvia before they immigrated to Israel). The monument to the Jewish fighters in the War of Independence of Latvia, which was designed by them in 1934, was a natural choice. At the initiative of Marika Finke, the archive in the Library of the University of Latvia searched and found four posters designed by the Sheftelowitsch studio, which were unknown until now.
An important decision was the language the exhibition should be in. After some difficult deliberations, it was decided to make the exhibition accessible to both the local and the international audience, namely, Latvian and English.
Yoram Shamir recruited Aviv Moses / Elul Studio in Tel Aviv to be the exhibition's designer, the same people who designed the "Shamir Brothers" book two years ago. He also recruited Uri Shamir from Cambridge to translate the texts into English. The translation into Latvian was performed by SIA Eglitis un Partneri under the supervision of the cultural attaché.
The embassy conducted negotiations with many parties about the location of the exhibition until it was able to conclude with three important institutions: the National Latvian Library in Riga (opening 1st of February), the Great Amber Hall in Liepāja (opening 24th April) and the Rothko Art Center in Daugavpils (opening date to be confirmed).
Shamir wanted to produce a catalog that would remain in the hands of art lovers even after the closing of the exhibition at the end of 2018. Keren Hayesod accepted the embassy's request and agreed to sponsor the catalog. A small bonus for visitors to the exhibition - the catalog includes, in addition to works displayed in the exhibition, several works in a completely different field - consumer products.
On the occasion of the exhibition, the embassy produced a medal in honor of the Shamir brothers and several items bearing Shamir's works. The Riga exhibition was opened on February 1 by the Latvian Minister of Culture, Israel's Ambassador and the curator of the exhibition.
In April, the exhibition moved to Liepaja and opened there on April 24 with the participation, among others, of the Latvian Minister of Defence, the mayor of Liepaja, Israel's ambassador to Latvia Lironne Bar-Sadeh and Uri Shamir and his wife who represented the family.
The exhibition moved from Liepaja to its third location - the famous Rothko Art Centre in Daugavpils - the second largest city in Latvia. It joined seven other exhibitions for the autumn season at the Centre. Uri and Uda Shamir joined ambassador Lironne Bar-Sadeh and cultural attache Marika Pinke to represent Israel and the Shamir family at the official opening. The exhibition will close on the 4th of November.
Yoram Shamir is in discussions with Marika Pinke about possible future uses for the exhibits.