Vilis Ozols
Laima Slava
Vilis Ozols belongs to the generation that, although born in the time of Latvia's independence, obtained its art education in the years of the Soviet regime, and was the first to declare itself as different, introducing the "harsh style" in figural painting. However, Vilis Ozols is known universally as a still-life painter, and there's nothing at all harsh in his works. Quite the contrary: there's peace, harmony, balance and stability, while his use of colour displays outstanding sensitivity, even tenderness. His works are unfailingly recognisable: small in format, with a clear structure, exquisite use of colour and familiar objects that emphasise basic geometric forms, arranged in a rhythmic sequence characteristic of Ozols. Usually serving as a vertical accent is a jug or coffee pot, with mainly round objects arranged on a tabletop turned towards the picture plane, covering up the angular forms: a plate (usually white), records (black with a white centre), a bowl, an apple, an egg, a billiard ball. It's homely, but not at all diffuse - clear, arranged, distinguishable, perceptible. Beautiful, but without the slightest trace of mannerism or stylisation, which might allow us to assign it to some pre-defined phenomenon, some particular departing age. One might even say that his painting was originally "harder", the corporeity of the objects denser, and that his great delicacy as a colourist has only now been fully released, the objects sometimes appearing to melt into the overall atmosphere of the painting, no longer so perfect, appearing softened instead. They have absorbed light until they themselves have begun to give light. There's no doubt that the still lifes of Vilis Ozols are valuable as objects for meditation. The more so, since they represent not the shell of things, but the essence of corporeity as people experience it. There is wisdom hidden in this apparent simplicity and unpretentiousness: not for nothing have the still lifes of Vilis Ozols attracted attention for forty years now, without changing in their basic features. So it is too at the major Still Life Exhibition at the Arsenāls Exhibition Hall - in the artist's 75th birthday year. And nobody would call his work "old fashioned". These are simply "the still lifes of Ozols". They really do contain something akin to the meaning of his surname - "oak": a stout, strong tree in the Latvian landscape, unshakeable in the sturdiness of its expressive, easily recognised structure. Not for nothing do women artists remember him as a standard of manliness of his time (which he doesn't deny: "Well, I was a handsome lad..."), while colleagues mention Vilis Ozols' bear-like strength, which came in handy in various "mens' games" (which he also confirms in conversation, recounting how it was he who usually carried the invalid painter Leo Kokle (1924-1964) on his shoulders in the youthful bohemian night-time ramblings around the city). However, when questioned about himself, he talks slowly and little, turning instead to stories about his artist friends.
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