Džemma Skulme was a Latvian painter whose expressive, modernist work made her one of the central figures of postwar Latvian art. Her paintings combined simplified forms, strong colour and a distinctive figurative language shaped by both Latvian artistic traditions and modernism. She was also an influential cultural figure who played a major role in the development of Latvia’s artistic institutions during the Soviet period.

Born in 1925 in Riga, Skulme came from a prominent family of Latvian artists. Her father, Otto Skulme, was a painter and rector of the Latvian Academy of Art, while her mother, Marta Liepiņa-Skulme, was also an artist. She studied painting at the Latvian Academy of Art before continuing her education at the Repin Institute of Arts in Leningrad.

Skulme became a member of the Latvian Union of Artists in 1956 and developed a career that combined painting with cultural and institutional work. Her practice evolved within the constraints of Soviet art while maintaining a distinctive modernist character. She exhibited widely in the Soviet Union and internationally, with personal exhibitions in Russia, Austria, Germany, Canada and the United States.

In 1976, Skulme was named People's Artist of the Latvian SSR. She served as acting chairwoman of the Latvian Union of Artists from 1977 to 1982 and as chairwoman from 1982 to 1992. In 1984 she received the USSR State Prize for works including the triptych Song and the paintings Threads, For Generations and Heavenly Lightning Strikes. She was also made an honorary member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences and an honorary doctor of the Latvian Academy of Art.

Skulme remained an important figure in Latvian cultural life into old age. She died in Riga in 2019, aged 94. Her legacy is closely associated with the development of modern Latvian painting and the country's artistic institutions during the second half of the twentieth century.

Dzemma Lija Skulme