The Annual Art Exhibition in Düsseldorf

by Raminta Jurėnaitė

The largest and most important event on the German art scene this year was the annual North Rhine-Westphalia art exhibition in Düsseldorf. Lithuanian artists have been participating in this exhibition since 1996. The exhibition is noted for a large variety of tendencies, media and artistic pursuits. Here one can find artistic trends prevalent in large international exhibitions, art markets and galleries, and those born and developing farther from officially recognized art centres.
In the Düsseldorf exhibition, figurative and object painting, abstract and realistic expressionism, field painting, constructivist or neo-geo compositions “coexist”. This year the main award of the Council of the Association of Holding Art Exhibitions was granted to the Japanese artist Takako Saito (b. 1929) who lives and works in Düsseldorf since 1979.
Works by indigenous Australian artists, surrealist paintings by Cuban artists and works by several Chinese artists distinguished themselves by their national features derived from ethnic traditions. Even more surprising were parallels between works by artists from different countries not aware of each other’s existence. A subtle dialogue was established between the blue monochrome canvases by Rūta Katiliūtė and paintings by Youza Otsuka from Tokyo. Echoes of signs of sub-consciousness could be noticed in the paintings by Patricija Jurkšaitytė and Ivo Kamphuis from the Netherlands or Xiabai Su from China. Interesting parallels between the bright-coloured compositions by Antanas Obcarskas and Eimutis Markūnas, the more restrained works by Aušra Barzdukaitė–Vaitkūnienė, Aistė Ramūnaitė, Asta Rakauskaitė and Arvydas Žalpys, and works of similar stylistics could be found.