Born:  16 September 1906 Liepaja Latvia

Died:  04 September 1985 Toronto Ontario Canada

Janis Zuntaks, one of Latvia's greatest painters, was born 100 years ago in Liepaja, and after a tumultuous life that took in some of the most unpleasant decades of the last century, he ended up moving to Canada and dying in Toronto in 1985. Now, in honor of the painter's centenary, Zuntaks work is seeing a revival in his homeland with an exhibition that will first appear at the State Museum of Art in Riga, before traveling to Liepaja.

The small exhibition features some 20 works from the second half of the artist's life including drawings, watercolors and oil paintings. Zuntaks brings a light, almost whimsical touch to subjects as dark as refugee camps in Germany. And then there are the many paintings of the Baltic Sea coast that he worked on, no matter how far away he was from Liepaja.

Extract from the Baltic Times