padegs: Friends and colleagues, artists Valdis Kalnroze and Kārlis Padegs, in Kalnroze’s stud

Friends and colleagues, artists Valdis Kalnroze and Kārlis Padegs, in Kalnroze’s studio,1934. A photo from newspaper “Dienas Lapas” (Day’s Pages) publication.
Together they held their first exhibition after leaving Art Academy, which took place in a public garden. In the newspaper advertisement they both introduced their artistic views:
Valdis Kalnroze: “Latvian art is still in child’s diapers, we can’t talk about national art, because our teachers are influenced by foreign schools”
While Kārlis Padegs wrote: “Art is not a reproduction of the existing, but every artist’s duty to find harmony between himself and his creative spirit, looking for a fulfillment, an expression of his "self”. He must try to understand the pulse of the current age. The face of this age is the starting point, to show the colours of life’s shadows, which will never be too dark for it, for depicting war, unemployment and the ultramodern life of cabaret.“