Māra Genere and Sarmīte Munde are ceramic artists whose lives are closely intertwined with the story of Latvian ceramic art and design. They were both students in the same year at the State Art Academy (now the Art Academy of Latvia), graduating in 1968 together with other legends of Latvian ceramics including Māra Linkaite, Solvita Zāle and Edīte Zvagule. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, they both briefly worked at the Riga Porcelain Factory. As factory staff artists, they created décor sketches for mass produced items. “We drew floral bouquets,” was how Aija Mūrniece (another academy graduate and RPF employee) recalled that period. Although it must be pointed out that both Sarmīte Munde and Māra Genere had more graphic, contemporary styles which set them apart from the standard factory style. Several of Sarmīte’s décor designs were approved for production, for example the lunch service “Vilnis” (A Wave, form design by Levons Agadžanjans), revealing today her highly individual signature. As Māra worked at the factory for a few years longer, a greater number of her decors were slated for production, with her crockery sets for children (form design by Taisija Poluikeviča) decorated with school, toy and other “childhood motifs” being particularly popular and widely produced.
Realising that industrial production offered little scope for artists, both women left the factory in the early 1970s. Sarmīte continued working as an artist at the Art Fund’s Ceramics Workshop and Studio “Logs” (Window). There, alongside other professional ceramicists, she was able to create individual works in a variety of ceramic materials. Her porcelain creations were given material form back at the RPF. 
For her part, Māra formed a close artistic collaboration with her husband, Eduards Geners. They worked together with clay, chamotte and stone mass, creating small and large-scale works and taking on design commissions for the interiors and exteriors of public buildings. They jointly created the acclaimed and for its time iconic crockery for the “Sēnite” beer hall, outdoor objects for sanatoriums and hotels in Jūrmala and much else.

A chamber exhibition of works by both artists is displayed in the first floor windows of Riga Porcelain Museum. It can be viewed by passersby in the Konventa sēta courtyard in Old Riga, both during and outside the museum’s opening hours.
Sarmīte Munde’s watercolours have been chosen for display, indicating the wide range of her artistic endeavours. The paintings were done on Estonia’s Saaremaa Island, a place that is dear to Sarmīte’s heart, and the motto of the collection is “On Saaremaa – refuge, secret, caress.” The paintings reflect Nordic placidity, nature and a harmonic sense of colour. Connoisseurs may also find parallels with Sarmīte’s ceramic works. 
From Māra Genere’s oeuvre, viewers can enjoy surprisingly beautiful porcelain works. She modestly notes that she is merely continuing the work begun earlier with her husband, refusing to describe her recent creations as porcelain painting in the traditional sense. However, her plate decors created in the last few years are breathtaking, reflecting influences from both the 1920s Latvian “Baltars” porcelain movement and Western European art. As a veteran of many decades in the field, Māra is also a master of the technology. While her decoration methods are not complex, perhaps even simple, her minimalist impulses are strictly subordinated to the compositional assignment, with colour nuances and tonal combinations expressing the artist’s unique sensitivity, worldview and insight. 

Riga Porcelain Museum is especially happy to be able to present this exhibition of works by Māra Genere and Sarmīte Munde at the same time as the museum is launching two new publications: a monograph about Riga Porcelain Factory artist Aija Mūrniece and a compendium of factory-made tea and coffee services titled “Servīzes A-Z” (The A-Z of Services). Both these books include information about Sarmīte and Māra, including stories about their academy years and stints at the factory as well as visual materials: mass-produced product designs and never-before-published, unique artistic services. This enables us to build a bridge between the past and the present and between the porcelain industry and unique ceramic art.

The exhibition by veteran artists Māra Genere and Sarmīte Munde can be viewed at Riga Porcelain Museum from 15 December 2023 to 11 February 2024.