What’s your name?

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The Berlinische Galerie Collection (Germany).

Briefly about the painting:

Tabaka painted it while studying abroad at the invitation of the German Academic Exchange Service. Although the Society of Berlin’s New Fine Arts, under the care of which M. Tabaka worked, adhered to the traditions of Realism, training and communication turned out to be a turning point for the art of the Latvian artist. This did not mean a fresh beginning – instead, it was a confirmation of the correctness of its resistance to the canons of Socialist Realism. The plot picture unfolds against the background of an urban landscape. West Berlin at that time was tolerant, open to a whole new place, attracted creative people from around the world. The city was very different in its aesthetics from what Maija could see in the USSR, and she depicted the metropolis extremely bright, overloaded with advertising and posters.