Exhibition “Caricature” on Display

To mark April Fool’s Day on 1 April, the Valmiera Museum invites visitors to view the exhibition “Caricature” in the display window of the museum’s Exhibition Hall from 13 April to 16 May.

The answer to the question of what is funny changes over time. Moreover, the answer is subjective—people’s sense of humour is influenced by certain social, cultural, historical, political and other circumstances. Browsing through older newspapers and magazines, one can see what people once liked to joke about and what they found funny. They contain both topics that now seem to have lost their relevance and those that are always fresh.

The Valmiera Museum holds a substantial number of caricatures by Vilis Zaķis (1937–1977), some of which are on display in the exhibition “Caricature”.

The artist was born in Daugavpils and studied at the Riga Secondary School of Design and Art (then known as the Riga Secondary School of Applied Art). After moving to Valmiera, he worked as a graphic designer at the Valmiera Museum (then known as the Valmiera Museum of Local History). Vilis Zaķis’s caricatures were published in the newspapers “Dadzis”, “Šahs” and “Liesma”, and he illustrated collections of humour and satire. The artist participated in several international exhibitions.

Publicity photo: A caricature by Vilis Zaķis

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Valmiera Museum