
Vita Gelūnienė. Dekoratyvinis akcentas
II. 1999, medvilnė, gobelenas, 25x1 |

Vita Gelūnienė. Dekoratyvinis akcentas
I. 1999, medvilnė, gobelenas, 18x25 |

Vita Gelūnienė. Du kūnai.
2001, vilna, gobelenas, 185x90
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Vita
Gelūnienė: Language of Unspoken Words
by
Virginija Vitkienė
From the
very start of her career the female artist chose the then forgotten
weaving technique in Lithuania, the classical tapestry. It was a bold
and unique statement at the time of universal revolt against obsolete
textile practices that marked the turn of the century. Instead of
importing something alien to the craft, Gelūnienė revived the technique
that had been in oblivion in Lithuania since the 19th century. In the
classical tapestry technique, the weft threads conceal almost
completely the warps, while fine grain produces a flat, regular
surface. These features of the weaving technique proved vital for the
artists realistic figures rendered with photographic precision. Her
draftsmanship and flawless knowledge of anatomy was obvious already in
her graduation project of 1995, the Academic
Study. Together with perseverance needed to complete a piece,
which may take up to several years to weave, they shaped the artists
individual language with a female body as its key word. Her classical
female nudes appear as posing for the artist who renders their sitters
just as there are, without embellishing, transforming or distorting
them in the least. This quiet and tacit presence of their bodies,
seated against a backdrop of the patterned soviet period wallpaper (a
recurrent decorative-semantic motif) is the greatest source of the
intrigue in her pieces.
Besides her artistic work Vita Gelūnienė is an associate professor at
Kaunas Institute of Vilnius Art Academy, an active participant of the
discourse on the contemporary textile at home and abroad, and a true
advocate for Lithuanian textile artists.
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