This year's first issue of the journal Daile (Art) is part of a long-term project supported by the Fund for the Press, Radio and Television Support. At the turn of the century, art increasingly employs modern technologies and untraditional forms of expression. This problem is discussed under a separate heading of the journal. Another issue of the Lithuanian art scene analysed in the journal is the experience of curated exhibitions. Lithuanian and Latvian exhibition curators discuss it by e-mail.
The journal traditionally presents some outstanding personalities of Lithuanian art and reviews the most important events of world art - the 48th Venice biennial and the Frankfurt Art Fair. A separate chapter is devoted to remarkable international art symposiums that took part in Lithuania. We finish this year with the chronicle of art events seeking to register the process and development of art in Lithuania as concisely as possible.
Finally, our journal is joining the Internet by opening a new website www.culture.lt/daile_review.htm.

Danute Zoviene
Editor

Art Review of Lithuanian Artist's Association

This publication was made possible through the support of the Media Support Foundation.

Editorial Board
Lolita Jablonskiene, Ingrida Korsakaite, Vaclovas Krutinis, Bronius Leonavicius
Editor Danute Zoviene
Designer Eugenijus Karpavicius
Computer lay-out Ramune Januseviciute
Stylist Egle Bertasiene
Translators Ausra Simonaviciute

CONTENTS

theme: Public Spaces and Art
4 Laima Kreivyte Gliding over Temporary Surfaces
8 Conversation Monumental Art in a New Historical Situation

exhibitions and symposiums
20 Erika Grigoraviciene Painting in 2000: Between Entropy and Structures
26 Egle Komkaite The Generation of the Turning Point: Teachers and Pupils

personalities
38 Raminta Jurenaite Mindaugas Navakas: Between Constancy and Actionism
42 Ingrida Korsakaite Stasys’ Metamorphoses
46 Viktoras Liutkus Linas Katinas: Enchanted by the Stars
50 Dalia M. Valanciute Danute Graziene: A Miracle of Eternal Joy
54 Raimonda Kogelyte-Simanaitiene Vygintas Paulauskas, A Glassmaker of the New Generation
58 Laima Lauckaite Art in Exile: Instead of an Epilogue
60 Ieva Kuiziniene Kazys Varnelis’ Collection

one world
70 Another Europe

books, galleries, chronicle
74 The Most Beautiful Lithuanian Books’99

Gliding over Temporary Surfaces
by Laima Kreivyte

How has the traditional structure of monumental art – commissioner/artist/society – changed in Lithuania at the end of the millennium? Are private individuals capable of financing this expensive representational art? At first sight this art genre does not seem to be on the verge of extinction, if you look at a large variety of new works created for public and private interiors, churches etc. However, in order to make sure what place monumental art occupies in the context of dynamically changing visual city spaces, we should try to look at them from the viewpoint of contemporary society.
Though “homogeneous” society no longer exists, monumental art (of its own free will?) is still limited by modernistic requirements of universalism. Artists create elevated oeuvres, cautiously trying to modernize millennium-old iconographic forms without changing their context. Certainly, this attitude is derived not only from the artists’ modernistic position, but also from the commissioners’ standpoint – a wish to perpetuate and represent themselves. But who will want to buy the eternity in a new package? Repetition is the engine of the mechanism of remembrance that tosses the present among the cogwheels of cyclical time. This classical mechanism of “contemporizing the present” is used in creating frescoes and stained glasses for churches. In the sacral space, where the rites unifying society are being regularly repeated, this attitude can be fruitful. It is more difficult to implant it into the ever-changing city spaces.
At the end of the 20th century the cityscape has become unstable and changeable, and accustomed us to noticing variable visual structures. The perception of the city as an explicitly defined and stable spatial structure was replaced by the theatrical logic of surface – the strategy of advertisement, label, make-up and mask. The wall of a building that has survived throughout the centuries is regarded not as a boundary separating the outer and inner, private and public space, but as a place for information, a background for a visual and verbal message. Instead of occupying a majestic place in urban landscape, sculpture is made to compete with fashionable images. And it inevitably loses.
Not only the physical space has changed. Citizens inhabiting it also became different. An observer and demonstrator (on festive occasions) gave way to an always hurrying consumer, for whom the city begins and ends with a car/trolley-bus/roller-skates, and the public space shrinks to functional zones: home-office-supermarket (+entertainment according to everyone’s needs). In a certain sense, the city has lost its body – what has remained is the skin, intestines and the system of blood circulation (perhaps digestion or elimination), i.e. transport.
Crammed with commercial and political posters, the city has lost not only monumentality, but also the rhetoric of eternity. A noble and unforgettable spectacle tends to be related with temporality and temporal art forms. Adapting itself to the contemporary mutations of public space, the search for monumentality takes a more mobile expression. Historical memory is “revived” on the cinema or TV screen and gets the spectator involved by its optical and sound effects.
To generalize, one could say that in the context of visual temptations and aggression, monumental art finds itself at the crossroads of “eternity” and temporality. Closed in the hermetic field of traditional aesthetics, its decorative and representational function does not leave any place for active perception. If sacral art can be contemplated irrespective of the changing social context, works created for public interiors and spaces cannot further ignore the current changes. Therefore the strategies of contemporary monumental art are becoming more similar to the analysis of the social and cultural context.

Monumental Art in a New Historical Situation

The project and cycle of exhibitions “Unknown Lithuanian Art of the Last Decade of the 20th Century” launched by the Lithuanian Artists’ Association in 1999 has an aim to draw society’s attention to the changed situation in art. During the first decade of independent Lithuania, with the disintegration of the structures that regulated the art processes in the Soviet period, and with the formation of new art institutions, art found itself on the fringes – the state was unable to accumulate the art heritage in a consistent way. This concerned painting, sculpture and graphic art, as well as monumental arts, whose condition is deplorable today. It resulted not only from the change of the concept of “public space”, but also from the commissioner’s status. Up to 1990, works of monumental art – frescoes, stained glasses, mosaics – most often were commissioned by state institutions, and now their commissioners are private individuals, banks and the church.
Therefore, the first topic of the conversation is the protection and fate of contemporary works of monumental art in a new historical situation.
Another reason for this conversation was two exhibitions held at the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000 – exhibition of contemporary stained glasses at the “Arka” gallery and exhibition “Fresco” at the Lithuanian Artists’ Palace. These exhibitions have shown that even in the changed historical situation, talented creators of monumental art are still to be found in Lithuania. What is the fate of the works they create, and what rights do their authors have? So, the second topic of this conversation is an artist’s freedom and a commissioner’s taste. On the whole, can an artist creating works of monumental art on commission feel free in what he is doing?
Participants of the conversation raised the following questions: does the state have a policy of protecting the legacy of contemporary monumental art, and what is the place of this legacy in our culture? Are the stained glasses, frescoes and mosaics created in the last decades of the 20th century and during the first decade of independence documented anywhere? The concept of “public space” having changed, is there any system helping to establish who is in charge of registering and protecting those works? Finally, are the works damaged by time and physical factors being restored, and what institutions finance the restoration works?
The conversation took place on March 9th, 2000 at the Lithuanian Artists’ Association, and its participants were the chief state inspector of the Department of Protection of Cultural Values, art critic Dalia Krűminienë, advisor of the Government of Lithuania, doctor of art theory Nijolë Tumënienë, professor of Vilnius Art Academy, architect Algimantas Mačiulis, director of the Section of Visual and Applied Arts and Photography of the Lithuanian Association of Authors’ Rights Gabrielë Napruđienë, chief controller of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association, stained glass artist Irena Lipienë, winner of the Government Award in 1999, stained glass artist Nijolë Vilutytë, and art critic Danutë Zovienë. The participants of the conversation drew up a draft of address to the Commission of Culture and Education of the Lithuanian Seimas, the Government and the Ministry of Culture expressing their concern for the fate of works of monumental art created in the last decades and the necessity of registering, conserving, restoring and protecting them.

Painting in 2000: Between Entropy and
Structures
by Erika Grigoraviciene

Vilnius painting triennials were launched in 1969. Participants of the first triennials (1969, 1972) were 10 artists from Latvia and Estonia and 20 artists from Lithuania. Since the 5th triennial guest artists are invited. The first guest artists were three Russian painters, followed by artists from Armenia, Moldavia and other Soviet republics. The 10th Vilnius painting triennial took place in 1996 with the participation of 10 Estonian, 10 Latvian and 15 Lithuanian artists. Two Swedish artists exhibited their works as guests. The 11th Vilnius painting triennial took place four years later. For the first time it was held according to a new principle – the collection was compiled by curator Evaldas Stankevičius who won the competition for the conception of Vilnius painting triennial staged by the Lithuanian Artists’ Association and the Contemporary Art Centre. Participants of this triennial are six Lithuanian artists, three from Estonia, Latvia, Norway and Sweden, two from Switzerland, Denmark, Finland and Hungary, and one from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Holland, Poland and Russia.

In the words of the curator of the Vilnius painting triennial Evaldas Stankevičius, “this exhibition focuses on painting as a means of expression and aims at reviewing its diverse contemporary modes and strategies by analysing an intersection of two extremes: meta-painting (painting about painting) and analytic-conceptual painting”. However, contemporary painting not only reflects its own history and seeks to be part of the discourse of the humanities, i.e. it is not limited to creating a text or meta-text. Painting is also (and first of all) related with reality – the development of material civilisation and its relics, the daily routine, behaviour and social relations. Painting becomes a field where the difference not only between a sign and its meaning (image), but also between a sign and its reference may disappear. Due to its materiality and tangibility, a painting is identical to a fragment of reality; it is both a mirror and its shadow, representation and presentation. Self-reflection in painting should not be left without notice. Besides a flirtation with photography, cinema, videotapes and totally dematerialised digital image production, painting is engaged in historical polemics with the disappearing expressionistic format, whose manifestations are often considered as anachronism in the second half of the 20th century. Nowadays artists allow structures, already created or discovered, to speak for themselves. Painting survives as a system based on “alchemical” bluff and savoire faire.

Nina Roos (Finland). Untitled. Acrylic glass, oil, 155 x 142, 1999

The Generation of the Turning Point: Teachers and
Pupils
by Egle Komkaite

A new permanent exhibition “The Generation of the Turning Point: Teachers and Pupils” compiled from the collections of the National M.K.Čiurlionis Art Museum has been opened at the Kaunas Picture Gallery. The term “generation of the turning point” refers to the beginning of the artists’ career rather than their age, i.e. the period of reforms initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev and the restoration of Lithuania’s independence. The world outlook of these artists had been formed in the period of stagnation, and therefore they experienced the influence of the official ideologized art. The obligatory model of Soviet pseudo-culture produced moods of desperate resistance, indifference to social affairs, and hindered the free formation of artistic views.
The present situation of the generation of “the turning point” is rather strange. On one hand, today they already belong to the middle generation. On the other, they still are the youngest artists in Kaunas. With the exception of the group POST-ARS, this generation joined the art scene in Kaunas rather steadily. Their appearance was related with conflict only in terms of their rejection of the existing order. Having refused to represent the social reality, these artists adhered to a highly individualized and personified concept of life, considering individual existence as its most valuable part. Most often they represent objects of daily environment – flowers on windowsills, bottles in dumps, ruins… Some artists of this generation continue the traditions of the Lithuanian ARS group, while the work of others is marked with the influence of contemporary Western painting.

Mindaugas Navakas: Between Constancy and Actionism
by Raminta Jurenaite

Mindaugas Navakas’ work is many-faceted. Apart from his main field – sculpture, he creates installations, artistic books, zyncographs, photographs and even scenery for ballets and operas. Like many artists engaged in conceptual art, he does not recognize the hierarchy of art branches, genres, materials or volumes. For him it is not important whether his idea is realized in the form of a monument from stone and iron or a small sketch in zincography. Of course, in all his works executed in different media, nothing comes by accident. All of them are very precise, laconic and professionally done.
Navakas does not search for a relation with nature or landscape, neither is he interested in anthropomorphism, cosmogony, theosophy or esotericism, as well as relativity of perception. He focuses on the regularities of human society, civilisation and culture. Making use of archetypal signs, he tries to change the existing established order by the intervention of signs of his own creation. Art for him is a means to ask, assert and change. In the Soviet period the artist challenged the ideologized iconography of state commissions. He opposed the oppressing violence with the resolution and feat of energy of an individual hero by casting huge granite monuments in the form of a table, chair and tool that were set up at the seaside.
The need for a radical argument about life and the urbanistic situation gave rise to Navakas’ series of projects of fictional sculptures, later accumulated in his “Vilnius Notebooks”. By means of photomontage Navakas placed projects of his sculptures on famous historical and architectural monuments of Vilnius.

Mindaugas Navakas. Composition of slides, 1998

Stasys’ Metamorphoses
by Ingrida Korsakaite

The phenomenon of Stasys Eidrigevičius has received many interpretations. There have been many attempts to describe the sources of his unique world outlook and to define the essence of his many-layered, ever-changing but still coherent work. Some critics notice the traces of the lost native village deeply impressed in his consciousness and the nostalgia of childhood memories. Others distinguish the eternal archetypal images of a bird, a tree, a road, home, water (jug), the polysemantic image of a mask, and regard them as expressions of universal meanings in Stasys’ work. Sometimes the absurd and distressing world of his images is explained by the effect of the concrete historical period and related with the totalitarian system that had influenced Stasys, and by the ominous contradictions of civilisation oppressing the humanity today. Stasys’ original expression has often been related with the features of surrealist art (subconscious impulses, illogical links of represented objects). Some critics point to signs of the pantheistic Baltic world perception, the melancholy and mysticism of the Lithuanian character, or look for the traditional link between the Lithuanian and Polish cultures. The artist himself finds the poetic interpretation of the famous Italian critic Vittorio Sgarbio most acceptable. In his article “Stasys, or On Loneliness” Sgarbio emphasizes the existential loneliness of an individual (artist) in the presence of life and death as the basic engine of his creative work.
All these interpretations contain a grain of truth and reveal the diverse origins and factors of the artist’s work. The main object of all these statements is a strange character recurring in the majority of Stasys’ works, always the same and yet different, whose frozen face is reminiscent of a mask. The most characteristic outer feature of this person with a thousand faces is his round hypnotizing eyes directed into a void.

Stasys Eidrigevicius. Placard. 1999 (gold medal, Katowycy, Poland)

 

Linas Katinas: Enchanted by the Stars
by Viktoras Liutkus

Linas Katinas is an eternally restless artist, a provoker who would not cut his hair, a commentator of all kinds of cultural texts and earthly contexts, and a spreader of new ideas in Vilnius and the province. His work and activity combines the avant-garde spirit nurtured in the Soviet period and contemporary freedom of expression. Katinas is considered by many as one of the most consistent abstractionists on the Lithuanian art scene. Already in the Soviet period the artist painted abstract or semi-abstract works that shocked ideological censors, and created paintings totally abandoning himself to visions, fantasy and premonitions. He still continues to work in the same vein. He was one of those artists who liberated the primeval freedom of improvisation. However, nearly all abstractions by Katinas contain imprints of nature, inlays of the most banal traces of everyday life. Active rhythm of colours, sudden brush strokes and jagged movements of line are derived from his active reaction and interaction with the environment. Nature inspires and nurtures the artist. Many critics notice the artist’s fondness for cosmological associations: in his paintings forms expand, flow and intertwine as a result of the processes taking place in the universe. On the other hand, Katinas’ works contain numerous cultural associations, remarks and comparisons that form a universal link of the cultural time and space.
The work by this artist defies all parameters of art criticism – he seems to constitute an art trend and style in himself. His paintings go beyond the limits of traditional taste and perception.

Danute Graziene: A Miracle of Eternal
Joy
by Dalia M. Valanciute

Having started her artistic career from linocuts, now the graphic artist Danutë Graţienë makes etchings. Though she is very moderate and consistent, her etchings are obvious marks of the stylistic systems reflecting changes in her creative work. One of the characteristic features of her work is the emphasis on the inner state conveyed through the form, colour and texture. The formal change of her visual system was very subtle – from linear drawing to more complex expression, rich textures and pictorial arrangement of colours. The artist is fond of improvisation inspired by visions and childhood dreams. She consciously avoids concrete subject matter and makes use of the structural links between symbolic constructions and their visual expression. Her etchings become a kind of mysterious index of colour, line and drawing, a calligraphic code of characters giving rise to new meanings. These etchings-indexes create a changing context, as the artist, though referring to myths and cultural quotations, rejects the need to illustrate concrete texts.
Graţienë is mysterious. Her etchings are “silent”. The shapes of the outer world are perceived by intuition. The motif of reality is synthesized to abstraction, though hints of concrete forms still remain. In Graţienë’s works easily recognizable signs of the sensual reality turn into impressionistic moods and abstract forms. Her monotypes and etchings are many-layered, polyphonic and polysemantic works imbued with play, mystery and silence, subtle ornamentation and subdued decorativeness and radiating mysterious beauty.

Vygintas Paulauskas, A Glassmaker
of the New Generation
by Raimonda Kogelyte-Simanaitiene

Celebrating his 40th anniversary this year, Vygintas Paulauskas is perhaps the oldest among the actively working glassmakers of the middle generation. Artists of this generation develop conceptual glassmaking in Lithuania.
Paulauskas’ works are noted for original themes. The artist is faithful to his favourite technology of hot glass blowing. The focus of Paulauskas’ interest is the interpretation of the human figure. Motifs of a mask, face, bust and torso are developed both in rounded forms and relief compositions. The artist effectively combines expressive variations of one motif (interpretations in the spirit of pop art, realism or surrealism) and technical “tricks” that make Paulauskas’ works unique and distinguish them from works by other glassmakers.
Another remarkable feature of the artist’s works is irony. It dwells in various bizarre motifs, often borrowed from daily life and transformed in the mass of glass. Clowns, fish, earthworms, amulets and different strange items intrigue us with their unexpected silhouettes and forms. Paulauskas’ works also contain an element of eroticism felt in the intertwined forms of humans and animals.
Paulauskas’ work is related with the global tendencies of glassmaking in the 9th and 10th decades by his fondness for combining different materials: glass and wood, glass and metal, glass and wire etc. In this way he expands the boundaries of visual expression of his works. He also actively experiments with colour – contrasts of bright red, green and blue paints of glass powder pulsate with energy and have an active effect on the environment.

Art in Exile: Instead of an Epilogue
by Laima Lauckaite

A large exhibition of Lithuanian art in exile was opened at the Radvilos Palace in Vilnius in March 2000. The bulk of the exhibition consists of the collection of the Čiurlionis Gallery in Chicago, sent back to homeland by legacy. The largest collection of art in exile has finally returned to Lithuania, and this was the main stimulus for staging this exhibition. However, the exhibition provokes many questions: what is our relationship with the heritage of art in exile today, how do we understand it and what is its significance for our art? The Lithuanian Art Museum somehow did not present this collection as a separate phenomenon, but called it “the return of the art in exile” and supplemented it with works from its own collections. If the artistic level of the collection was not high enough, it should have been improved by more rigorous selection, as the exhibition is too diverse and crammed with works. It is not quite clear why the Čiurlionis Gallery, the museum’s collections and individual collections had to be shown at the same time. Art in exile is noted for a large variety of styles, trends and different artistic levels, but this diversity has caught the exhibition’s organizers unawares and as a result, the exhibition lacks a more explicit conception.

Kazys Varnelis’ Collection
by Ieva Kuiziniene

Kazys Varnelis was born in the town of Alsëdţiai, Ţemaitija, and studied at the Kaunas Institute of Applied Art under professor Stasys Uđinskas. During the Second World War he retreated from Lithuania. In 1945 he graduated from the Vienna Art Academy. While living in Stuttgart, Varnelis made the acquaintance of Ottomar Domnic, a doctor, art sponsor and admirer of German abstractionism, whose collection became an important impulse for him to take interest in abstract art. In 1949 the artist settled in the United States.
Already as a student Varnelis used to collect ethnographic objects in villages, photographed and drew them. It is difficult to say when he acquired the first item for his collection. Taking interest in everything that surrounded him – history, architecture, sculpture, painting and literature – he slowly started to accumulate a large and interesting collection. The major part of his present collection was acquired in various auctions and sales in America and Europe.
The artist acknowledges that at first he did not think that this collection could travel to Lithuania. Nobody had expected that Lithuania would become independent. Only the latest exhibits have been acquired with a view to the collections of Lithuanian museums and what they lack.
In 1997 Varnelis invited the rector of Vilnius Art Academy Arvydas Đaltenis to the United States to help him decide if it was worth while taking his collection to Lithuania. Encouraged by the rector, Varnelis took a decision to establish a museum accommodating his collection. It took a long time for the museum to be equipped. Now it has received a juridical status. Though the most difficult work is already finished, it remains to take an inventory of the stocks, to systemize the archives and catalogue the library.

Collection of bronze sculptures.

Fragment of expozition

Fragment of expozition of modern (1950-1970) furniture design.

 

CONTENTS

Another Europe

This year the national gallery Jeu de Paume in Paris held an exhibition “Another Europe” (curators Lorand Hegyi, Viktor Misiano and Anda Rottenberg). Among the participants of this exhibition was the Lithuanian artist Eglë Rakauskaitë who presented a wall hung up with chocolate crucifixes and the video performance “In Honey”.

Egle Rakauskaite. Iside honey. Video instalation, 1996

 

The Most Beautiful Lithuanian Books’99

The competition for the best Lithuanian books design is organised by the Ministry of Culture, the Lithuanian Artists’ Association and the Open Society Fund–Lithuania. The aim of the competition is to acknowledge the best in book design and printing over the previous calendar year from among books and other publications by Lithuanian publishers.
Books are divided into the following categories: fiction, children’s and young people’s books, school books, textbooks, scientific literature, art books, catalogues, rare editions.
On 3–4 February 2000, 23 publishers entered 110 books published in 1999. Out of these, 30 books qualified for the second round. The panel chose 14 books – 3 for the first prize, and 10 runners–up.
1 book won the Open Society Fund–Lithuania prize.

Second prize Lietuva. Praeitis, kultura, dabartis Editor Saulius Zukas, designer Eugenijus Karpavicius

Open Society Fund-Lithuania prize Inge Luksaite Reformacija Lietuvos Didziojoje Kunigaikstysteje ir Mazojoje Lietuvoje Designer Eugenijus Karpavicius