Lithuanian art history 1900 2016

Lithuanian Scene from Modern to Contemporary Art Lewben Art Foundation for Russia and Eastern Europe Acquisitions Committee Tate Modern London Research developed by Francesca Ferrarini, through bibliography research and interviews with Artists, Curators, Collectors and Institutions of the local scene, supported by Lewben Art Foundation Team (Indrė Tubinienė, Ugnė Bužinskaitė, Giedrė Marčiulaitė) and CEO Vilius Kavaliauskas and Rita Navalinskaitė.

August 2016

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CHAPTER ONE .................................................................. 4 1.1 History of Lithuania Time Line ............................................ 4 1.2. Definitions ................................................................................ 6 CHAPTER TWO .................................................................. 7 2.1. Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis ...................................... 7 2.2. Pranas Domšaitis ................................................................... 8 CHAPTER THREE: PAINTINGS ............................... 11 3.1. The Soviet Era ....................................................................... 11 3.1.1. Silvestras Džiaukštas ................................................................. 11 3.1.2. Vincentas Gečas .......................................................................... 12 3.2. THE SIXTIES ...................................................................... 13 3.2.1. Algirdas Petrulis .......................................................................... 13 3.2.2. Jonas Švažas ................................................................................. 15 3.2.3. Vincas Kisarauskas .................................................................... 16 3.2.4. Valentinas Antanavičius .......................................................... 16 3.3. THE SEVENTIES .............................................................. 18 3.3.1. Antanas Martinaitis ................................................................... 18 3.3.2. Teodoras Kazimieras Valaitis ............................................... 19 3.4. THE EIGHTIES ................................................................. 19 3.4.1. Kazimiera Zimblytė .................................................................. 19 3.4.2. Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas ......................................... 20 3.4.3. Šarūnas Sauka ............................................................................. 20 CHAPTER FOUR: ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY ........ 22 4.1. The Lithuanian School of Photography ........................... 23 4.1.1. Antanas Sutkus ............................................................................ 23 4.1.2. Romualdas Rakauskas ............................................................. 24 4.1.3. Vitas Luckus ................................................................................. 24 4.1.4. Algimantas Kunčius .................................................................. 25 4.1.5. Aleksandras Macijauskas ........................................................ 26 4.2. Social Landscape photography .......................................... 26 4.2.1. Alfonsas Budvytis ....................................................................... 27 4.2.2. Algirdas Šeškus ........................................................................... 28 4.2.3. Gintautas Trimakas .................................................................. 29 4.2.4. Remigijus Treigys ..................................................................... 29 4.2.5. Raimundas Urbonas ................................................................. 30 4.3. Other Photographers: Underground Scene .................... 31 4.3.1. Rimaldas Vikšraitis .................................................................... 31 4.3.2. Virgilijus Šonta ............................................................................ 32 4.3.3. Domicelė Tarabildienė ........................................................... 32 4.3.4. Vytautas Pletkus ......................................................................... 33 4.3.5. Vytautas Stanionis ..................................................................... 34 CHAPTER FIVE: THE NINTIES AND NEW FORM OF ART .................................................................. 35 5.1. Mindaugas Navakas ............................................................ 35 5.2. Deimantas Narkevičius ....................................................... 36 5.3. Artūras Raila .......................................................................... 36 2

5.4. Eglė Rakauskaitė (Egle Rake) ..................................... 36 5.5. Žilvinas Kempinas ............................................................ 37 5.6. Darius Mikšys ................................................................... 38 5.7. Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas ................................ 38 5.8. Patricija Jurkšaitytė ......................................................... 39

CHAPTER SIX: FLUXUS ................................................ 40 6.1. Jonas Mekas ...................................................................... 40 6.2. Jurgis Mačiūnas ............................................................... 41 6.3. Fluxus Cabinet and Fluxus Ministry ........................... 41 CHAPTER SEVEN: YOUNGER GENERATIONS . 43 7.1. Juozas Laivys ..................................................................... 43 7.2. Pakui Hardware ............................................................... 44 7.3. Julijonas Urbonas ............................................................. 44 7.4. Eglė Budvytytė ................................................................. 45 7.5. Ieva Misevičiūtė ............................................................... 45 7.6. Robertas Narkus .............................................................. 46 7.7. Liudvikas Buklys .............................................................. 46 7.8. Elena Narbutaitė ............................................................. 47 7.9. Lina Lapelytė .................................................................... 48 7.10. Gintaras Didžiapetris .................................................... 49 7.11. Viktorija Rybakova ......................................................... 50 7.12. Augustas Serapinas ........................................................ 50 CHAPTER EIGHT: LITHUANIAN ART INSTITUTIONS ................................................................ 51 CHAPTER NINE: BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................... 52

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CHAPTER ONE 1.1 History of Lithuania Time Line

19th Century – Russian Domination until the First World War Lithuanian immigration to the United States. The traditions and culture of “pure” Lithuanians is conserved in Catholic Seminaries.

1904 – The Tsar – Prohibitions: it is forbidden to SPEAK LITHUANIAN and to read/distribute any book written in Lithuanian.

1905 – The Russian Revolution: Lithuania declares INDEPENDENCE for the first time, but Russian repression is too strong.

1915 – Germany dominates, after 2 years, in 1918, Germany declares Lithuania INDEPENDENT. 1920-22 – Peace agreement between Lithuania and Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia recognizes Lithuanian independence.

Between the wars – secret agreements between Germany and the Soviet Union relegated Lithuania under Soviet control, and the Red Army invades Lithuania in 1940, resulting in 12,000 Lithuanians being deported to Siberia.

1941-1944 – during the Second World War, Germany reoccupies Lithuania, officially became a District of Germany.

1945 – The Soviet Union reasserts authority over Lithuania.

1945-1973 – Lithuania fights for its independence from the Soviet Union without success. The Stalinist era.

ART AT THIS TIME – a great many of the brightest modernists immigrated to the United States. Those who stayed suffered poverty and persecution if they refused to adhere to the doctrine of Socialism. On the other hand, the 4

Baltic region had a relatively short Soviet period, so the process of liberalization in the arts went faster than other Eastern Europe Nations.

During the Soviet times, there were just a handful of small exhibition centers: The Artist's Union, The Photo Art Society, The Urban Planning Institute, The Kaunas artists' Palace, The Republican Library, the Writer's club, the Vaga Publishing House, and the Panevežys Drama Theatre.

Lithuanian art during these times was exhibited around the Soviet Union, but artists themselves were unable to attend openings of their exhibitions and received very little feedback. The independent organization of shows was prohibited.

There was an underground subculture, the diffusion of Polish art journals and magazines, and albums and artists catalogues were shared among friends who had contacts with artists abroad. So even under the Soviet time many Western European trends had influence on Lithuanian art.

Socialist Realism was the government approved Art genre.

1988 – Perestroika and Gorbachev “Sąjūdis” - initially known as the Reform Movement of Lithuania. The “Sąjūdis” movement for reform and new government obtains (from the current government) important reforms: Christian churches reopen and Lithuanian is declared as the official language.

23 August 1989 – the human chain “Baltic Way” demonstration links Riga-Tallinn-Vilnius, a few months later, Lithuanian declares independence, which prompts immediate Soviet repression (economically and militarily).

However, the fall of the Berlin Wall foreshadows the collapse of the Soviet Union.

August 1991 – putsch in Moscow 2-6 September 1991 – the USA and then Russia declare the Baltic Republics as independent.

Economic difficulties/lack of basic necessities/Soviet military presence/transition to the Market Economy 1992 – First Lithuanian Elections 2002 – Membership in NATO 5

2004 – Membership in the European Union 2007 – Membership in Schengen Lithuanian artists already in the Tate Collection are: Marc Chagall Jacques Lipchitz Jonas Mekas Deimantas Narkevičius

1.2. Definitions Modern art: the common definitions of Modern art in Lithuania includes all the paintings and sculptures up to 1980, but usually excluding photography.

Contemporary art begins from 1991 with Independence from the Soviet Union.

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CHAPTER TWO

In Modern times, the most important figure of Lithuanian panorama, also famous in the Soviet Union was Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911), artist and composer.

The importance of his work was immediately recognized after his death, as he is a figure that perfectly explores the traditional myth and mysticism of Lithuanian culture.

During the first decades of the Twentieth Century, Lithuanian emigration was very intense, and the culture was exported and mixed with others around the world.

Pranas Domšaitis (1880 – 1965), with his figurative aesthetics very much reflecting Lithuanian tradition, blended his life and art with many regions in Europe and South Africa. That is why he represents a key figure in Lithuanian Modern art, as he narrates this multicultural idea of his home country while having to live many years alone in the19-20 century.

One of the most interesting figures among Lithuanian expat artists was Jonas Rimša (1903-1978): he spent his life in South America, especially in Bolivia, the subject of many of his artworks. Extensively recognized in that country, he was also a very important figure for Lithuania; organizing and helping artists to visit either his birth country or South America. His paintings are a remarkable development in the figurative traditional Lithuanian painting, together with the Bolivian aesthetics and culture.

2.1. Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis

M. K. Čiurlionis – valued as one of the most significant Lithuanian painters and composers that has ever lived.

Almost all of his known artworks and manuscripts are on display in the National M. K. Čiurlionis’ Art Museum in Kaunas, as well as several Lithuanian Art Museums in Vilnius, and the National Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

In 1963 a M. K. Čiurlionis’ Memorial Museum was opened in Druskininkai in the house where the Čiurlionis family resided. Čiurlionis’ works were exhibited in 40 exhibitions around the world, the most important among them: in 2000 Musée d'Orsay, Paris (90 works), in 2005 “Visual Music”, Museums of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (3 paintings), in 2005 “Visual Music”, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington (2 pieces), 2010-11 “Čiurlionis.

Esoteric Journey. 1875-1911”, Palazzo Reale, Milan (137 works), 2012 “Symbolism from Van Gogh to Kandinsky.

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M. K. Čiurlionis, “Fairy Taile II”, 1909

Dreams of Nature 1880-1910”, Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam), National Scottish Gallery (Edinburgh), Ateneum Art Museum (Helsinki) (the 3 painting cycle “Sparks”). He was a composer, a dreamer and lover of his country; all his artworks are about music and they narrate unknown stories, allegories referring constantly to mystical elements like pyramids, birds, and even death. He usually painted a series of artworks, titled “Sonata” where he traced stories among the pastels, connecting the real and the imaginary with detailed and poetic aestheticism, but also with a very innovative approach: the zoom in on details. In his paintings some objects or landscape become closer and introduces us more deeply into the story, revealing new aspects and details. Drawing, painting and composition were mixed practices for him, so it is especially exciting appreciate his poetry and music. He was an inspiration for such artists such as Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Mark Rothko. About the artworks: production of paintings and pastels total about 200 artworks; they are very rare and they were kept together by his wife until the Čiurlionis Museum was established in 1921. Just a couple of new discoveries have been made along the years and finding new acquisitions are almost impossible.

2.2. Pranas Domšaitis

Pranas Domšaitis was born in Cropiens, a village in East Prussia (currently in the Kaliningrad region of Russia) near its border with Lithuania. Pranas Domšaitis spent his first 27 years of life as a farmer. Under the sponsorship of Max Liebermann he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Königsberg in 1907, graduating in 1910. This was his first formal schooling. He then studied in various European capitals. He was strongly influenced by a meeting with Edvard Munch. He befriended and travelled with the artist Fritz Ascher from Berlin, who drew a portrait of him in 1919-1920. He spent the First World War partially on his parents' farm and partially in military service, and then resumed his travels and artistic career. His successful exhibitions in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Romania, and Turkey were disastrously followed by his inclusion in a 1937 exhibition of Degenerate art and the removal of his works from German museums. In 1938 he began signing his pictures using the Lithuanian version of his name (he had taken Lithuanian citizenship in 1920). He spent the war painting "harmless" still lifes. In 1949 the University of Cape Town offered his wife, the singer Adelheid Armhold, a 8

P. Domšaitis, “Crucifixion”, 1963

position as a senior lecturer. He spent the rest of his life there. His youthful style has been described as romantic realism or spiritual impressionism, and later as a melding of "...Chagall's enchanting visions, the guileless piety of Rouault, the resonant color of the expressionists, and the intuitive wisdom of the peasant.” Landscapes and village life were frequent themes, along with Christian narratives, particularly the Annunciation, the Crucifixion, and the Flight into Egypt. Pranas Domšaitis’ works are held at the Pranas Domšaitis Gallery in Klaipėda, Lithuania, the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania, the Pretoria Art Museum, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, and the National Gallery in Berlin, among others. Many of his interwar works have disappeared.

See more artworks: http://daile.lt/artist/domsaitis-pranas-51652583/

2.3. Jonas Rimša Jonas Rimša (Juan Rimsa) was born in 1903 in Svėdasai and grew up in Kaunas. Bowing to the will of his father, he graduated from the best sewing school in Vienna, and afterwards, to completely focus on studying art, he went further abroad in search of his destiny. In 1931–1934 he attended the Buenos Aires Academy of Art (Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires), which was the best institution of its kind in all of South America. In 1943, in the city of Sucre, Bolivia, the artist established and ran an art school. However, one year later the school was forced to close. Unhindered, Rimša selected twenty-one of his most gifted students and established a private art school, the Curso Superior de Bellas Artes, which operated until 1951.

In the art world, the students of this school became known as “Rimša’s Group”. He provided financial support to his students, and personally allocated funds to send more than a handful of talented Bolivian artists to pursue their studies in Europe – Graciela Rodo-Boulanger, Mario Eloy Vargas and Juan Ortega Leyton being among the most famous. Jonas Rimša was honored in the cultural sphere in Bolivia, being presented with the highest distinction given to civilians, the Cóndor de Los Andes award. He was also made an Honorary Citizen of Bolivia. The Bolivian Government acquired approximately 300 paintings from the artist and distributed them among the most significant national offices.

The epic and impressive painting by Rimša, “The Founding of La Paz” (1948), is displayed in the Bolivian capital’s 9

J. Rimša, “Rhythm. From the Aymara Trilogy III”, circa 1962

Municipal Hall. Several of his works also reside in the Central Bank in La Paz, as well as in the homes of private buyers. The restless spirit of an adventurer encouraged Rimša to continue travelling and fine-tuning his craft. The artist lived in Argentina, Bolivia, the USA and Tahiti.

Moving from one place to the next, he was able to burn his earlier works without feeling any remorse in his heart, and allowed himself to dream about the new, creative stages ahead of him. The artist spoke publicly about the turningpoint in his painting soon after he had turned fifty. He announced that he wished to paint differently, and stopped the monography already written about him from being published. He was a loner, and remarkably hard-working.

The artist has painted close to 1,000 works and held over 30 solo exhibitions. Jonas Rimša is one of the most vivid artists of the Lithuanian diaspora to have promoted Lithuania abroad. Entertaining his interest in the ancient Incan civilization, he spent much time travelling through Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. At the core of Incan culture, the people of Cuzco also left a great impression on the artist, with their weathered yet determined faces and colorful, ornamental clothing. The artist also had the opportunity to experience first-hand the deep, cultural traditions and language of the ancient people of the Aymara tribe of South American Indians who lived in the territory of Bolivia and Peru around Lake Titicaca. The painter, who had arrived from the low-lying shores of the northern Baltic Sea, was captivated and inspired by the exotic nature of the former Incan Empire – a landscape of astoundingly high mountains rising from lush, jungle-filled valleys, forests and waterfalls, clouded in mist, as well as its history. Jonas Rimša could have gone abstract, but he grew to love and respect the native Incan people; he acknowledged their ancient culture, their history and its natural landscapes so intensely that Bolivians to this day treasure his creative legacy and have named the artist “the missionary of art”. Jonas Rimša is considered among the most influential Bolivian painters.

See more artworks: http://daile.lt/artist/rimsa-jonas-10234283/

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CHAPTER THREE: PAINTINGS

3.1. The Soviet Era The constraints of Socialist dogma was an unpalatable prerequisite for many artists in these times. Nonetheless, the most influential artist was Silvestras Džiaukštas (b. 1928), representing the official art (Paintings like “Death of an Activist” 1967). Together with him was another famous artist Vincentas Gečas (b. 1931), also rector of the Institute of Art in Lithuania.

3.1.1. Silvestras Džiaukštas

The painter Silvestras Džiaukštas was born in 1928, in Mikalavas (a district of Švenčionys). In 1954 he graduated from the National Institute of Fine Arts (student of Antanas Gudaitis, Vytautas Mackevičius), and there from 1962-1972 he lectured. Since 1957 he has participated in exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad and organized four solo exhibitions.

He has been a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association since 1957. In 1973 the artist was awarded the National LSSR Prize. S. Džiaukštas is an important Lithuanian modernist painter. Thick, textural painting is typical of his works, as well as green and blue color compositions. Most of his canvases are of large formats, often coordinating multi-figural compositions. In the 1970s and 1980s the painter joined the evolution of modernist trends in Lithuania and moved away from Social realism. In this period he painted some of his most important works – the anti-militaristic painting cycle, allegorically commentating on war’s aggression, the existential crisis of his time and the absurd. For his figural compositions S. Džiaukštas was awarded the National Prize in 1973 – the art critic Saulė Mažeikaitė states that “Džiaukštas treated the human figure quite freely, even though for this freedom of form he paid by painting some plot lines acceptable to the government”.

S. Džiaukštas often painted plotlines which highlighted the unattractive and paradoxical aspects of everyday life and being. The painter created not statically composed and idealized figures, but figural compositions expressing antiurban values, dominated by a grim and pessimistic atmosphere. Džiaukštas critiqued his contemporary society through irony in everyday life in his artworks. He has painted portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, but he mostly 11

S. Džiaukštas, “Red Motorbike”, 1972

focuses on figural compositions, to which he continuously returns.

See more artworks: http://daile.lt/artist/dziaukstas-silvestras-59332495/ 3.1.2. Vincentas Gečas

Vincentas Gečas was born in 1931 in Mažeikiai. After graduating from the Lithuanian Art Institute (now known as the Academy of Fine Arts), he taught there from 1957 (1969–1974 m. – as vice rector, 1974–1988 m. – as rector and as a professor since 1980). In 1963 he studied in Italy. In 1989, he began teaching at Šiauliai Pedagogical Institute (now known as Šiauliai University). Since 1958, he has participated in exhibitions. He held individual exhibitions in Vilnius (1967, 1981), Moscow (1988). Since 1957, he has been a member of the Lithuanian Artists' Association. In 1968, he was awarded the LSSR (Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic) State Prize. In 1974 he was awarded the Republic of Lithuania merited for arts honorary title. The first canvas of Gečas, called "Kolūkio turguje" ("In The Collective Farm Market") (1959) drew attention to the detection of a fragment of reality’s naturalness, vitality and sonorous colors that had nothing to do with the post-war era. At the beginning of the 1970s, after the beginning of the general modernization movement, V. Gečas plunged into plastic experiments in order to achieve an extreme means of expression. V. Gečas, being open to all impressions of life, watched and recorded the new, intriguing social environment that strongly influenced changes in his artistic expression. This creative period of his was based on a creative modern interpretation of reality, highlighting scenes from life, courageous deformation and generalization. All of his paintings reflected the existence of ordinariness and street life. V. Gečas is an important figure in Lithuanian art.

His creative works are always bright, with attractive and contrasting colors, sometimes displaying a glowing jewel-like richness and often with savory stridency. Features of the artist-colorist are especially widely disclosed in his many painted urban and natural images of “still-life”.

See more artworks: http://daile.lt/artist/gecas-vincentas-93753934/

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V. Gečas, “Art, People, Events I”, 1972

3.2. THE SIXTIES

In contrast with the imposition of Realism style, a group of artists continue their previous research on figurative expressionism. (Antanas Gudaitis (1904-1989), Leonas Katinas (1907-1984), Algirdas Petrulis (1915-2010).

From 1960 to 1965, young artists started to be influenced by post war Western art, taking the courage to move on from socialist realism; the key artist for this step forward was Jonas Švažas (1925-1976), who launched in 1969 the first Baltic Painting Biennale in Vilnius. Even if he had never painted abstract (forbidden) paintings, his landscape and urban settings were the closest-to-abstract paintings ever seen in Lithuania. There were only a few Lithuanian artists who were working among the Regime and the most representative together with Švažas were Kazimiera Zimblytė (1933-1999), Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas (b.

1935), and they stayed hidden until the late 1980s (see that chapter).

3.2.1. Algirdas Petrulis

Algirdas Petrulis was born in 1915, the village of Natiškiai, a family of farmers. Having lost his mother when he was one year old, he lived in different towns in Lithuania, and from 1924-1933 he studied in gymnasiums in Vilnius, Švenčionys, Utena and Panevėžys. Having graduated, Petrulis studied German studies in Kaunas University where having met the students from the Kaunas’ School of Art, decided to study painting in J. Vienožinskis’ study, which he completed in 1939. In the same year he made his debut in the 5th Autumn Art Exhibition in Kaunas, Vytautas the Great Culture Museum. 1940-1941 he taught in the Vilnius 1st Middle School, 1941-1942 he assisted J. Vienožinskis in the Painting Department of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. During the German occupation he worked as a funds safe-keeper in the Vilnius Museum of Arts. In 1946 he was accepted to the Vilnius Artists’ Association, continued his work in the Painting Department of the Vilnius Academy of Arts.

Having married his wife Ona Bagdonaitė in 1950, but his career was put on hold for a decade while he worked odd jobs. 1962-1984 he lectured at the Vilnius Institute of Arts Department of Education. In 1964 he organized his first solo exhibition at the Writer’s Association Club in Vilnius.

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A. Petrulis, “Green Landscape”, 1987

In 1974 Algirdas Petrulis was awarded the Lithuanian SSR Meritorious Worker of Arts honorary title; in 1977 he was awarded the LSSR Artists’ Association prize; in 1978 he was awarded a diploma in the 5th Baltic Watercolor Triennial in Riga, in 1983 he was awarded the Lithuanian SSR prize for his paintings Still-life, Lakeside in Veisiejai, Distances, The University Town from Afar, Seasons, and Collective Farm Fields. In 1995 Petrulis was awarded the Lithuanian State National Prize for Culture and Arts; in 1996 he was awarded the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Gedminas’ Order Third Class; in 2001 he was awarded the Lithuanian Artists’ Association Prize and Golden Badge No. 001 for the exhibition cycle “Algirdas Petrulis 2000”; in the same year the artist was awarded a diploma in the Baltic States’ watercolor triennial “Riga 2001”. The painter died in 2010 in Vilnius. The famous 20th century painter Algirdas Petrulis’ landscapes and still lifes occupy a special place in the Lithuanian art context. His creative work has grown from his love for his native nature, observing closely in which the painter embellishes and highlights its creative power and plenitude. In his works, man and nature fuse into a single harmonized beam, which exists in a new way of life, filled with Algirdas Petrulis’ creative power. From an aesthetic standpoint, the painter is related to Post-impressionist art, especially P. Cezanne. Observing, but not imitating his surroundings, the painter simplifies forms, depicts things more as they are, not as they should be. A clear color-palate was inherited from the Impressionists as well as their rational composition and structural dexterity. Color utilized

by Petrulis is the main structural tool for the surface of the square canvas, the emotional as well as rational choice of which enriches the painting with harmony and poetic musicality. Inspired by the beauty of the everyday, the spiritual origins of the simple object surfaces in his plastic language. The domestic interior gains a festiveness and holiness when the painter enriches it with subtle colors and nuances. In Algirdas Petrulis’ creative work, feeling and thought are not counterintuitive, they merge so that they would create a unified harmonious atmosphere.

See more artworks: http://daile.lt/artist/petrulis-algirdas-10793264/

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3.2.2. Jonas Švažas

Jonas Švažas was born in 1925, Urvikiai (Mažeikiai district).

From 1946 he studied in the former Lithuanian TSR National Institute of Fine Arts (now the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts). In 1953 he earned a degree in painting and until 1976 worked as a teacher of painting (a docent from 1965).

He started the Vilnius Painting Triennial. In 1975 he was awarded the National Prize for Culture and Arts. He organized solo and participated in group exhibitions starting in 1954. Švažas created around 600 paintings, more than 300 pastels and about 150 drawings, He lived and worked in Vilnius until he died in 1976. The painter Jonas Švažas is one of the most important Lithuanian post-Stalinist (“thaw”) period artists, coordinating the artistic demands of his period with modern Lithuanian tendencies. In his early work the painter actively resisted the artificial narratives, idealism and naturalism in social realistic art of the post-Stalinist period; instead, introducing the modern (similar to Postimpressionist, Fauvist) brushstroke and color palate; he was one of the first in Lithuania to work seriously with collage.

So combining Expressionist colors and broad structural color palates, Švažas worked in a wide thematic spectrum – portraits, nature motifs, industrial and city landscapes. In his later works he combined realism and fantasy imagery. These bright, expressive and sensual colors as well as the abstract layering of monumental forms introduced Western modernism tendencies to Lithuanian (similarly to the Ars group before the war) imagery, drawing attention not only to the relayed content and its relation to reality, but also to the form of presentation, formality and introversion; the artist‘s vision in it. Despite industrial themes, large scale canvases and drastically radical creative tendencies, the artist’s paintings are often defined as emotional, musical and sensual. The image is summarized; the industrial expressionist abstractions are some of his most famous painting cycles in which the compositions of contrasting colors and vertical constructions predominate – with its graphics and decorativism. The latter traits are best seen in Švažas’ later works, which are even more laconic, concise, and compositionally concentrated. The motifs of nature and city, which increased during this period, are relayed in an even more expressive color palate and fast brushstrokes.

See more artworks: http://www.daile.lt/artist/svazas-jonas-85505497/

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J. Švažas, “Trees”, circa 1970

3.2.3. Vincas Kisarauskas

Working out of the context was Vincas Kisarauskas (19341988), who made no compromise with the official art world and didn't look back to expressionism. He was interested in everyday life and he focused his paintings on a contemporary interpretation of universal biblical themes and ancient tragedies – focusing on mythological and religious themes. One of his famous works is from 1965, which represent the maimed figure of an anti-Soviet resistance fighter. He was one of the initiators of the Ex Libris Artists’ movement in Lithuania. He painted thematic compositions, portraits, created ex-libris, engravings, book illustrations, mosaics, medals, designed theatre and cinema productions.

V. Kisarauskas was one of the first in Lithuania to start developing the collage, the photomontage technique and to create assemblages. In Vincas Kisarauskas’ artwork influences of Byzantium art, Romanticism, Expressionism, Abstract art, Pop art, Cubism and Lithuanian folk art are visible. In his creative work the artist raised existential problems, developed ancient, biblical, historical themes and narratives of classic literature. In his work the dramatic disposition, constructivism, expressively deformed forms, static composition based on horizontal and vertical, spatial and formal contrasts are highlighted. The artist also wrote a monograph “Lithuanian Book Signs 1518-1918” (1984), art criticism. In 1988 he was awarded the LTSR National award (after death).

See more artworks: http://www.daile.lt/artist/kisarauskas-vincas-99159487/

3.2.4. Valentinas Antanavičius

Together with Vincas Kisarauskas, Valentinas Antanavičius (b. 1936) was the most anti-Soviet artists, whose works started being shown during Perestroika. His work focused on political allegorical drawings. Valentinas Antanavičius was born in 1936, Kušlikiai village (district of Šiauliai). In 1962 he graduated from the Lithuanian Institute of Fine Arts. He taught in the M. K. Čiurlionis’ Arts gymnasium and the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts (a docent since 1995).

Since 1964, he’s been a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association. V. Antanavičius has been awarded distinguished prizes: in 1992 the Lithuanian National Prize 16

V. Kisarauskas, “6 Faces and 1 Face. No. 10”, 1977

for Culture and Arts, in 2006 the Knighthood Cross “For the Merits for Lithuania”. A member of the group “24”. He has participated in exhibitions since 1962, has organized more than 20 solo and about 130 group exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad. Currently the artist lives and works in Lithuania. He is one of the first Lithuanian artists who seriously worked with assemblage, combining it with painting. The color palate used by the artist most often is dark, dirty or uncomfortable, (but sometimes with bright accents); his painting is figural and the combined objects are wooden, domestic, unusable and worn out (toys, canvases, sculls). The objects are also painted over and around, and so admitted into the space of the painting, where aspects of mythology and the passing of time are highlighted. The center place in the painter’s pieces belongs to a figure which is half human, half beast. The atmosphere of most of his paintings is dramatized and ironic; the author accentuates not only relevant issues, but also utilizes a timeless archetypical symbolic language, so his paintings are interpreted as myths, philosophically as well as politically. It is as if old and Modern art meet in this artist’s work. V. Antanavičius’ art is mostly influenced by 20th century modernism trends, which he combined with Lithuanian motifs and manner; however, he presented these artworks only in independent Lithuania. Valentinas Antanavičius’ artwork is close to its time, in which the ideological, social and cultural hierarchy of the 1970s and 1980s holds its irony: man, work and religion. In his work the artist raises the issues of beauty, object and artwork – the elevated conception of art. V. Antanavičius himself states that “the primal man, wishing to overcome a dangerous and powerful beast, tried to draw it believing that this will give him power, so I, in drawing the absurd that is in our lives, try to feebly poke it”. He does not avoid the absurd, caricatures and rough painting.

See more artworks: http://daile.lt/artist/antanavicius-valentinas-24443687/

Other figures: Leopoldas Surgailis Savickas (1919-2012), Leonardas Monika Bičiūnienė (1910-2009), (1905-1979), Algimantas Julijonas (1933-2002).

(b. 1928), Augustinas Gutauskas (b. 1938), Petronėlė Gerlikienė Stankevičius Stankus

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V. Antanavičius, “Seated Figure”, 1970

3.3. THE SEVENTIES

With a slight influence from Western trends, paintings remained close to realism in this decade. The most interesting figures were Kostas Dereškevičius (b. 1937), Arvydas Šaltenis (b. 1944) and Algirmantas Jonas Kuras (b.

1940), and Mindaugas Skudutis (b. 1948) who investigated some forms of primitive art; art brut. Abstract art was banned by Soviets until the mid-1980s; however, a few experimenters investigated this style from the late 1950's, even if their artworks remained secret for a long time. These artists are: Vytautas Povilaitis (1927-2009), Kazimiera Zimblytė (1933-1999), and Vytaustas Šerys (1931-2006).

3.3.1. Antanas Martinaitis

A remarkable figure who came out in the late 1970s was Antanas Martinaitis. He painted landscapes, still life paintings, and figure compositions: “Pabaigtuvės ant Gudkalnio” (Merrymaking on Gudkalnis hill) (1969), “Besimaudančios prie ežero” (“Swimmers near the lake”) (1975) and many more. He has been a part of group exhibitions since 1965. Since the start of his creative path, he has been holding himself to the “Arsininkai” tradition, most of his works can be recognized as typical 1970's-1980's Lithuanian painting styles. Bearing in mind that the author considered Professor Antanas Gudaitis as his mentor and mostly favored the paintings of Antanas Samuolis and Vladas Eidukevičius, it is possible, in a broad sense, to imagine the plastic evolution of the “Ars”. Two tendencies can be recognized in Martinaitis' works: the romantic (“Ars” inspired) and the modernistic. As with the “Arsininkai”, Martinaitis was intrigued in folk art, archaic culture, and, at the same time, the modernity of the 20th century painting style. Both tendencies are historically connected, but, when speaking of Martinaitis, the semantic revolution of these is important: the romantic tendency. The paintings tend to have a clear compositional structure. The foreground, the appreciable ground composition is accentuated by the vertical rhythm of the drawing (groups of static figures, trees); the background and the abstract ground is brought into creation by horizontal rhythm of lines (landscape, the horizon, a bird flying alongside). The opposition near-far is expressed by a graphical opposition of vertical-horizontal, and the culture plane is deciphered as the opposition between domesticated, intimate, cultured and public, sacrosanct and natural planes: the painter was fond of accentuating the horizon, which separated the earthen and 18

A. Martinaitis, “Old Lowlands”, 1986

celestial spheres.

See more artworks: http://www.daile.lt/artist/martinaitis-antanas-63894815/

3.3.2. Teodoras Kazimieras Valaitis

An important figure among this decade was Teodoras Kazimieras Valaitis (1934-1974), as he was the only figure inbetween art and design; let’s say especially in design: among the project was the Soviet Union’s pavilion at the expo universal. Few works remain, among a vast documentation of his presence.

T. K. Valaitis, “Decorative Pattern of “Expo-70” of USSR” 1969

3.4. THE EIGHTIES

The first abstract painting exhibition in 1987 by Leonas Linas Katinas (who produced abstracts since the 1950s but were never shown) and Dalia Kasčiūnaitė (b. 1947) After that, Kazimiera Zimblytė and Eugenjius Antanas Cukermanas (b. 1935) were exhibited for the first time together in the Vilnius Biennial in 1988. They have been fundamental in that specific moment as they first exhibited Abstract art. Independent from any movement was Šarūnas Sauka (b. 1958), who developed his language looking into the traditional and mythological culture of Lithuania.

3.4.1. Kazimiera Zimblytė

Kazimiera Zimblytė's pure abstraction is crucial to the processes of the modernization in Lithuanian painting in the second half of the 20th century. Early works from the 1960s were the most intense stage in her individual creative exploration. When looking at Zimblytė’s pictures, we shouldn't search for an expression of a specific idea or a symbolic meaning, but rather concentrate on our inner life 19

and a meditation on the shift between the tangible and the intangible, and between the here and beyond.

See more artworks: http://www.ndg.lt/exhibitions/past/kazimierazimblyt%C4%97.aspx

K. Zimblytė, “Composition”, 1968

3.4.2. Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas

Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas entered Vilnius’ art life having organized two small yet significant solo exhibitions in 1976 and 1984. He started taking part in group shows soon after that. With a background in architecture, Cukermanas was one of the first artists to start consistently cultivating a reduced abstract language in opposition to official Soviet art.

The artist wrote: “Abstraction is a natural way of life for me.

Space and matter diffused in it are the main characters of the pieces. They manifest themselves as sparse basic shapes/stains, like shifted space (or plane) fragments of varying density.” The artist’s first paintings were constructive geometrical compositions, but he soon developed a multilayered, almost monochromatic tonal and tactile form of painting.

See more artworks: http://www.menonisa.lt/en/site/shows/100

3.4.3. Šarūnas Sauka

Šarūnas Sauka is an independent figure who came out just after Perestroika, in continuum with the theme of mythology and allegoric exploration of aesthetics. Šarūnas Sauka, recently received massive acclamation in Lithuania, as his paintings are the only ones from Čiurlionis’ time to the 20

E. A. Cukermanas, “Cepheus”, 1990

contemporary which reflect the traditions and Lithuanian culture related to the mystification and mythology.

See more artworks: http://www.daile.lt/artist/sauka-sarunas-44502988/

Š. Sauka, “Home Again”, 1990

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CHAPTER FOUR: ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography has been very important among the 20th century Lithuanian art. It starts to be related in the last years from Historician to the Aesthetic of Boredom.

The phenomenon of Boredom, related to intellectual disciplines and photography, affected Lithuania a bit later than in the West. More than a literal translation, this deals with oppression from a regime, monotony, the effect from the perception of time, and with the absence of specific activities (o posa). The main reference in Philosophy is Martin Heiddeger, as he defines banality as an inseparable part of everyday existence. There is a strong connection between Fluxus and the Photographers, and this connection is “boredom�. Even if the reasons why boredom effects art were very different from the West (the excess of information and economic crisis) to the East (uniform, an ideological slogan directed life and habits), The Aesthetics have many aspects in common; for example, we could see lots of similarities with Walker Evans photography.

Strategies of the Aesthetics of Boredom are: -Boredom as a subject (John Cage initiated this exploration into the repetitive, common day life and body).

-Monotony and Emptiness -Banality -Chance composition -The slowing of time -Everyday spaces The Alternative Art movement in the Soviet Union explored these aspects as a social protest and an antidote to the heroic rhetoric of the official art. Some examples are Ilia Kabakov, Boris Mikhailov (The Ukraine) who might be also an influencer for Lithuanian photographer.

Summary: we could divide Photography into two generations: The Lithuanian School of Photography and Social Landscape photography.

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4.1. The Lithuanian School of Photography

The Lithuanian school of photography takes its name from an exhibition which included nine Lithuanian photographers, after which it was called The Vilnius school of Photography, which mostly refers to HUMANISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY. 4.1.1 Antanas Sutkus (b. 1939) 4.1.2 Romualdas Rakauskas (b. 1941) 4.1.3 Vitas Luckus (1943-1987) 4.1.4 Algimantas Kuncius (b. 1939) 4.1.5 Aleksandras Maciauskas (b. 1938)

4.1.1. Antanas Sutkus

Antanas Sutkus is probably the most important Lithuanian photographer. The initiator and head of the Lithuanian Arts Society. He was one of the first to photo Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir (with their permission!). From 1989-1990 and then from 1996 he was the chairman of the Union of the Lithuanian Art Photographers. In Lithuania and around the world he organized about 60 solo exhibitions. He was merited with the LR National Prize for Culture and Arts (2003), LR Ministry of Culture’s Prize; he was awarded the LR Government Arts Prize and others.

Antanas Sutkus recorded the images of life and architecture during the Soviet times in his photographs. He caught the disappearing epoch that today is especially fascinating for the younger generation in post-Soviet countries, as well as for Western cultures. He is still alive, taking care of the Archive and publications.

A. Sutkus, “Marathon in University Street”, 1959

See more artworks: http://www.daile.lt/artist/sutkus-antanas-99159738/

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4.1.2. Romualdas Rakauskas

Romualdas Rakauskas – a member of the Union of Lithuanian Art Photographers (from 1970), an honorary member of the International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP) (from 1976). In 1976 he was awarded by the International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP) the honorary distinction of Artist Photographer (AFIAP). In 1980 he was awarded the honorary title of the Merited Journalist. In 1997 he was granted the title of the honorary member of the Union of the Lithuanian Art Photographers.

In 2009 the photographer was awarded the National Prize for Culture and Arts for the poetic conviction of his artistic photography. Rakauskas has organized about 30 solo exhibitions all over Europe and has participated in about 30 group exhibitions. Romualdas Rakauskas’ photography is appreciated abroad; some have been sold in Sotheby’s auctions. The photo-artist’s works were acquired by the Union of the Lithuanian Art Photographers, the Lithuanian Art Museum, Photography Museum (Šiauliai), the NationalLibrary (Paris, France), The Daniela Mrázková Collection (Prague, the Czech Republic), the Canon Photo Gallery (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), the International Centre of Photography (New York, USA), the R. I. P. Permanent Centre (Arles, France) and the FIAP collection (Lausanne, Switzerland). His most interesting series is related to the rural families.

R. Rakauskas, “Untitled” (from the series “Bloomings”), 1974-1984

See more artworks: http://photography.lt/rakauskas 4.1.3. Vitas Luckus

Vitas Luckus – this Lithuanian photographer (along with Sutkus) proved very relevant from this generation. He organized exhibitions in the Soviet Union (Moscow (1982), Kiev (1982), Tallinn (1985), Vilnius (1985, 1987, postmortem 1997, 2000, 2014). the same as other classics of Lithuanian photography, Vitas Luckus managed to evade Soviet censorship; in his photography the artist merged Documentality and Conceptuality. He was rediscovered again after an organized solo exhibition in the National Gallery of Arts in 2014. The photographer was ignored as a creator of art photography by the official assessors in the Soviet period. Today it is known that he was one of the first creators of conceptual photography in Lithuania and it is worthwhile comparing his work with the contemporary Western world. He define himself as an abstract 24

V. Luckus, “Untitled”, circa 1970

photographer. Different series are peculiar of his work and a recent retrospective publication includes them all together with a small series of photo collages.

See more artworks: http://daile.lt/artist/luckus-vitas-99159857/

4.1.4. Algimantas Kunčius

Algimantas Kunčius is known as one of the most distinguished Lithuanian photographers of the older generation and a long-term photo correspondent of the cultural weekly Kultūros barai, where he was later editor of photography. He is the author of the portrait series “Meetings” (1964–1984) and “Sundays” (1968–1985) and has documented cities in the photography series Munich in April (1990) and “In the Streets of Vilnius” (since 1975).

Kunčius was awarded the Lithuanian National Prize for his photographic landscape series “Distant Images” published in book format in 2001. Between 1979 and 1984 there was a brief period in Kunčius’ oeuvre when he was actively filming with a 16 mm camera. This exhibition presents films from his informal film archive amassed during these years that comprise portraits of places and people filmed in a unique photographic manner. Capturing his personal and cultural milieu with a freely operated camera Kunčius has immortalized many of Lithuania’s artists and culture creators including scenographer Liudas Truikys, painters Antanas Gudaitis and Augustinas Savickas, stage director Juozas Miltinis, musicologist Vytautas Landsbergis, philosopher Romualas Ozolas, art historian and critic Halina Kairiūkštytė-Jacinienė, photographer Antanas Sutkus and singer Giedrė Kaukaitė. The majority of Kunčius’ films have been digitized specially for CAC exhibition and will be screened publicly for the first time.

See more artworks: http://cac.lt/en/exhibitions/past/11/5201

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A. Kunčius, “Sundays”, circa 1978

4.1.5. Aleksandras Macijauskas

Aleksandras Macijauskas - Lithuanian photographer. In 2008 he was awarded the Kaunas City Municipality Culture and Arts Prize for the nurturing of the visual arts; in 2006 – the Polish President’s Golden Merit Cross; in 1995 he was awarded the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts and in 1998 the Cross of the Knight (Fifth Class Order) of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.

Aleksandras Macijauskas has organized solo exhibitions in Lithuania and around the world (about 30). He became famous on a global scale for his unedited images of Soviet everyday reality, “unsightly” village scenes; he was one of those Lithuanian photographers who managed to evade Soviet censorship. On the other hand, through his work he wanted to document a culture which seemed about to disappear. About the artwork: well-known in the Soviet times for his landscapes, he managed to evade censorship, even if the original purpose of his work was mainly to collect and save images of Lithuanian culture before the Soviet culture could destroy everything. This is why his series “Lithuanian Rural Market 1968-1980” is the most important.

He uses a remarkable expressiveness by using unconventional framing, dynamic diagonal compositions, high black and white contrast as well as distortions achieved through the use of wide-angle lenses and by positioning himself extremely close up to subjects.

See more artworks: https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/aleksan dras-macijauskas?all/all/all/all/0

4.2. Social Landscape photography

Social landscape photography, from the 1980s: A new generation (a selection of the most influential) moves from the Vilnius school and from the human as a subject to exploring Landscape and society. Photography is not only a portrayal or documentation of facts, it begin with something more CONCEPTUAL that wants to explore the human being and his/her surroundings. The new generation goes under name of Social Landscape photography, and includes those before the youngest generation; those who had worked in secret to avoid Soviet censors. Typical of the anti26

A. Macijauskas, “Rural Markets. No 319. Alytus”, circa 1978

Soviet photography is the use of small format photograph, and a different aesthetic that involves conceptual art and abstraction. Officially started in 1980 with the young photographers’ exhibit in Vilnius, held by the Union of Lithuanian Art Photographers.

4.2.1 Alfonsas Budvytis (1949-2003) 4.2.2 Algirdas Šeškus (b. 1945) 4.2.3 Gintautas Trimakas (b. 1958) 4.2.4 Remigijus Treigys (b. 1961) 4.2.5 Raimundas Urbonas (1963-1999)

4.2.1. Alfonsas Budvytis

Most of Alfonsas Budvytis childhood he spent together with his beloved grandparents as his own parents had been exiled to Siberia soon after his birth. He overcame that destiny and stayed in Lithuania just by a miracle, and he spent most of his life in the suburbs and this became his central topic. He became thrilled with photography, got involved in photo clubs as a student. He never showed his work as “artist’s work” and he lived an unusual life – just after earning a degree in Pharmacy and getting married he started to get more and more involved in photography. In 1979 he became a member of Union of Lithuanian art photographers and started his professional photographer career.

By working under the credo "If you are doing something do it the most, or don't do it at all; at that point you pound your fist on the table; in this case, everybody will shut up." His photos distinguish expressiveness and innovation. Since the Soviet times, photography was under governmental censorship, hence only portrait photography was allowed.

After the fall of the censorship, he shifted his attention from portraits to conceptual photography – the banal ordinary object is symbolically opposed to the significance of social reportages by the Lithuanian photographers of the older generation. He has never photographed important events, locations or figures, but he focuses his attention on peripheral territories, marginal personages and details. From the older generation, his work is closer to A. Kunčius, (for example the series “Reminiscences” by A. Kunčius, 19751987). In the approach to PEOPLE, what is peculiar in his work is that he does not do portrait, but just catches some figures passing by. After 1986 his approach to people 27

A. Budvytis, “Standing”, 1980

changed dramatically; he left Lithuania and went to China and focused on exotic shots. Lithuanians no longer inspired him, as they were doomed to inactivity, kind of suspended in time (due to political and social circumstances). The series where these people are suspended is well represented in the “Male department” (1987) shot in Vilnius Psychiatric Hospital: even here, he distances himself from traditional portraits, mostly showing just parts of the human body, like the top of the head, shoulders, etc. He made his first steps towards conceptual photography, as for example with “The Standing Man” (1980), where we can only see the feet of a man, stacked into ski bindings, to symbolize Lithuanian conditions under Soviet rule. His work was considered rebellious as it hugely conflicted with the traditional (and approved) photo-reportage of the older generation. He suddenly changes in the 1988-1991, and his subject became Vilnius with the aim to record everything (architecture subjects mainly) that he could still find. Along with this, the other main series and maybe the one that goes more towards abstraction is “In Goniūnai”, a collection of details from nature that he said stayed in his mind since his childhood.

See more artworks: http://www.budvytis.lt/budvytis/lietuvos_fotografijos.aspx? lang=EN

4.2.2. Algirdas Šeškus

Vilnius-based artist Algirdas Šeškus is often cited by texts on art criticism as the one who marked the breaking point in Lithuanian photography. He was known for decades; however, the major part of his production remained hidden until a grand retrospective in 2010 was held at the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, where he was acclaimed as the pioneer of Lithuanian avant-garde photography. As Margarita Matulytė defined in the exhibition introduction, “The photographer is characterized by an interest in the nature of the image, by a match of intent and meaning with the fact (when the event is the actual photo shoot) and by de-contextualization of content.” In creating art outside any trend or direction, stripped of a theme or subjects of artistic research, deprived of conceptual projects, he emerges as a practitioner of a “dilettante” aesthetics. He is constantly balancing between artistic nihilism and fetishism of a creative act, between the underground and the official art scene, between collectivism and individuality. He has been 28

A. Šeškus, “Venice 5”, 1983

critical of traditional representation of reality, of modernist originality and of the necessity to seek innovation in general.

This has found reflection in his blurred shots of “disorganized” composition, in an unexpressive, minimalist form of low-resolution prints and intentional selection of the uninteresting, trivial content. In order to emphasize the “dilettante” stylistics of his work, the author leaves his photos untitled, does not indicate a precise time or date, and ignores standard principles for exhibiting photography.” His work was influenced by the fact he worked with film, as a Lithuanian TV operator for a long time, and his work is close to Boris Mihailov, who was involved as well in different disciplines as theater, composers, etc.

See more artworks: http://seskus.eu/

4.2.3. Gintautas Trimakas Gintautas Trimakas photography is distinguished by the fact that it is not born of a digital camera, but the ancestor of modern cameras – the camera obscura or otherwise known as "the pinhole camera". This black box has a pinhole and either film or some kind of photo paper. This technique is referred to as early as the fifth century. He first developed new ideas from photography, transforming cameras into a pure media, just as a service to the artist to translate ideas into artwork. Since the 1980s his aesthetics have changed, he now focuses more on photographic projects and technological experimentation.

See more artworks: http://www.photography.lt/lt.php/Fotografai?id=131

4.2.4. Remigijus Treigys

Remigijus Treigys first retrospective exhibition was in 2015, and it makes it possible to go deeply into his work for the first time. Titled, "Territories: Photography 1987-2015", the exhibition included different series. The Artist described the concept behind his work: “The word "territory" is the number of my photographs titles: "Area", "closed area", "fenced field", "Street" ... I consider photographs as a “framed space”. Each photographs narrates the story of the place I am shooting, I come back to places I had been 10 or 20 years ago and try to shoot the passing of time. Some areas 29

G. Trimakas, from the cycle “Exits”, 2012-2013

are even completely unaffected by the passing of time and the social changes, others are radically changed, almost do not look like the same place”. All the photographs have the ‘Horizon line’ in common, always present, that symbolizes the reference point to look at when looking at the photographs.

In his photographs, the composition is fundamental, he always search for the horizon line.

R. Treigys, “Things: Chair”, 1991

See more artworks: http://www.photography.lt/lt.php/Fotografai?id=127

4.2.5. Raimundas Urbonas

Raimundas Urbonas had not completed his artistic education and actually started from the reportage, but later concentrated on object and forms. He began to participate in exhibitions in 1985. In Lithuania R. Urbonas’ work received attention only after his death – in recent years. In 2009, especially in the National Gallery of Art photography exhibition "Boredom". According to critics of photography he focused on objects and scenery, photographing frontally, not using technical tricks or fancy angles. His worldview was close to Art photographers Vytautas Balčytis, Gintautas Trimakas, Alfonsas Budvytis, and is mostly a testimony on his environment: hippies, domestic still lifes, towns, the “Gliukai” theater, portraits, and later - Prussia. The photographer did not create a series; the series of photographs usually were not consciously or deliberately started, with the exception of the East Prussia cycle.

Creating this cycle, the author began to think consistently and purposefully. The photographer felt affection for the place; he so easily found suitable angles to reveal it, and Prussia became a constant inspirational place. R. Urbonas meticulously documented these ‘closed’ towns. The photographer tragically died in December 1999 during a storm in Klaipeda.

See more artworks: http://www.kkkc.lt/file/urbonas_web_versija.pdf

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R. Urbonas, cycle “East Prussia”, 1991-1992

4.3. Other Photographers: Underground Scene

4.3.1. Rimaldas Vikšraitis (b. 1954) 4.3.2. Virgilijus Šonta (1952-1992) 4.3.3. Domicelė Tarabildienė (1912-1985) 4.3.4. Vytautas Pletkus (b. 1955) 4.3.4. Vytautas Stanionis (b. 1949)

4.3.1. Rimaldas Vikšraitis

Rimaldas Vikšraitis (b. 1954) is a hidden figure of the Lithuanian photography panorama. His work cannot be related to Lithuanian art photography or international trends.

He conveys realistic and simultaneously extremely individualistic images of the modern day Lithuanian countryside, going further than the narrow context and being interested in the European context. He narrates about Lithuanian people who live in the countryside with the typical Lithuanian approach of the social photographer; however, he does not record the flow of rural life, but he ask subjects to pose for him. So then the people photographed by him stage some of the more grotesque situations of their everyday life expressly for the camera. What make his work unique is that he lives together with the people he photographs: it seems clear that the majority of those posing for the photographer appear to be inadequately perceiving their own personal plight and for most people who view these photographs, this often proves overwhelming. He was awarded the European Photography Festival Rencontres d'artes in Arles in 2009, nominated by the British Artist Martin Parr.

See more artworks: http://www.whitespacegallery.co.uk/artist/rimaldasviksraitis/

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R. Vikšraitis, “Untitled”, 2004

4.3.2. Virgilijus Šonta

Virgilijus Šonta (1952-1992) uses photography to create a virtual reality of art, often portraying couples, doubles, and bodies. He always said the Country does not match his inner state, and it seems as if the photographer was looking for that country all his life (geographically). He travels to the most remote places in Lithuania and creates by trying various genres, aesthetics and ways of thinking and shooting.

The image making the legendary “Baltic Way” represents a young man demonstrating his completely naked body in front of the group of x.

The first series from the 1970s are “Lithuanian landscape” “stones of the North” “things and forms”, already fix the horizon as his central signature, the colored element that appears in the image as an incident and the relationship of the human body and nature. In the SF MOMA Collection.

V. Šonta, “The Baltic Way”, 1991

See more artworks: http://www.mmcentras.lt/autoriai/virgilijus-sonta/587

4.3.3. Domicelė Tarabildienė

Domicelė Tarabildienė (1912-1985) was a much hidden figure, however, a true innovator in women’s photography during the interwar period in Europe. She started to work with photography when she moved to Kaunas in 1929. As the inter-war capital of Lithuania, the city was booming and the cinema, cabaret and social life were growing fast. Her work testifies to the imprinting of Lithuanian modernity.

Her relationship to the French photographer Claude Cahun is clear; however, some differences are interesting to investigate. The way D. Tarabildienė uses cut out images of her nude body was totally novel, as she places her body among hand drawn celestial bodies, as stars and the moon.

She was a strong innovator; on the other hand, her poetic is closely related to tradition. She constantly reinvents identity.

This is achieved not only by utilizing images of popular culture, but also by stripping for the camera. Yet the latter does not promise to unveil the soul of the photographed woman. Instead, in nude self-portraits (very rare in Western 32

D. Tarabildienė, “Star”, 1932

Europe at that time) we do not clearly see the nudity, often images are a bit out of focus, as per example in “Nude with Encorce” 1931.

4.3.4. Vytautas Pletkus

Vytautas Pletkus (b. 1955) is well known from a series of photography he shot in Chernobyl; the series named “Vanishing”. This photo series shows the slow process of destruction from Soviet era to the Europe Union time.

Houses, fences, sculptures, objects and places have become useless and are slowly sinking into oblivion, making their own parallel reality in a lost time. Vytautas Pletkus collects scenes of time destroying the identity of places and nature covering everything that once was made by man. He consistently covered the familiar scenery of Lithuanian photography with bitterness. As if while watching the same reality, he would see that it has already collapsed; the picturesque fields are just a cover, a carpet of illusion on a screaming pit where only charred concrete columns and rusty bars can grow. Fallen from the pedestal next to closed door in Šatekiai, a stone lion is ossifying as a proof of nothingness,” writes Lithuanian art critic Agnė Narušytė, “This world is doomed. Yet hope remains: maybe, while walking around the places, the photographer is taking us towards some secret room? A room with a leaky roof where our dreams will come true, a miracle will happen and bitterness will lift.” The author also included this topic in his other photo series, made from the beginning of the 21st century.

Some of the most significant photo series of the author are: “Placebos” (2013, Placebai), “Non-Prospective projects” (2008–2013, Neperspektyvūs projektai), “Territories” (2006– 2011, Teritorijos), “Outskirts” (2006, Pakraščiai), “Bridges of Kaunas” (2003-2008, Kauno tiltai). The author has published two photobooks – “Bridges” (2011, Tiltai) and “Vanishing” (2015, Tuštėjimai). Most of his work is related to the exploration of “territories” in the meaning of places out of boundaries, a field that does not exist anymore and together with Soviet culture and communist sociality, people have left territories, landscapes, and habits.

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V. Pletkus, “Territories”, 2006-2011

4.3.5. Vytautas Stanionis

Vytautas V. Stanionis Senior (1917–1966) was an official photographer from the Soviet time. His son Vytautas Stanionis (b. 1949) found and used his father’s photos to create his artwork, whose objective was to narrate the transformation from Lithuania to the Soviet society. The father’s films contained photographs of Seirijai and surrounding districts’ inhabitants and they were created to be used for the release of new documents: they all had been photographed in 1946, when the Soviet authorities changed Lithuanian passports to Soviet ones. There is no plot in shots, no acting, no other details, only static faces of people in neutral white background. Nameless faces lose their identity now and become certain allegories of people’s fates in the post-war years.

See more artworks: http://www.stanionis.lt/portfolio/lietuva_.html

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V. Stanionis, “People from Seirijai. Photos for Documents”, 1946/1987

CHAPTER FIVE: THE NINTIES AND NEW FORM OF ART

5.1. Mindaugas Navakas

Mindaugas Navakas’ (b. 1952) zincography cycle “Vilnius’ Notebook” is exhibited in the National Gallery of Art; it is done as a montage at the time before computers (19811985). Publicly exhibiting this cycle, depicting architectural interventions in Vilnius, for the first time in 1986, he caused a wave of discontent in the Soviet government. Navakas’ work stands out with its huge sculptural objects. The artist was the winner of the Herden Prize (1995) and the laureate of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts (1999), as well as a professor in the Vilnius Academy of Arts. His works are held in the Lithuanian Art Museum, private collections in Lithuania and abroad. Navakas is also important to Lithuania as a social agent: Navakas was a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association (LAA) until 1993, when he submitted a request to leave the association, so protesting against the society’s unwillingness to reorganize according to our modern market economic laws.

The request was fulfilled year later. In 2003 the artist exhibited a half-hour long video piece “Ten Years Later”, in which he dances step with Jonas Gasiūnas, who also left the association. In the end-titles of the film it is highlighted that ten years have passed after the artists’ withdrawal from the association and it is said that the LAA’s changes after the collapse of the Soviet Union did not justify the hopes of the community. Navakas’ titanic works are exhibited in public spaces and art institutions in the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, streets of Vilnius, Neris shores, Palais du Tau in Reims, France, KUMU Art Museum in Tallinn, the Latvian National Art Museum in Riga, the project Smash the Windows, Snatch the Crystals was exhibited in London, the Frieze Arts Fair, a large retrospective exhibition was organized in the National Gallery of Art in 2014, Vilnius.

See more artworks: http://www.cac.lt/en/exhibitions/past/93/583

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M. Navakas, “Reconnaisance”, 1997–1998

5.2. Deimantas Narkevičius

Deimantas Narkevičius (b. 1964) - a creator of inter-media art and one of the most recognized Lithuanian artists in the international art arena. In 2008 he became the winner of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts for his media art analyzing the problems of society and culture. Important for Lithuania and famous internationally after he represented Lithuania twice in a row (49th (2001) and 50th (2003)) in the Venice Biennale. Already present in MoMA, Tate, Pompidou and other international museum collections.

D. Narkevičius, “Once in a XX Century”, 2004

See more artworks: http://www.gbagency.fr/fr/19/Deimantas-Narkevicius/

5.3. Artūras Raila

Artūras Raila’ (b. 1962) work is intimately associated with the analysis of the relationship of Sculpture and Object.

Starting with ethnographic inspiration, (cube and close vertical from 1988) he enlarged the context of research, using objects he found to create new ones. Raila’s sculptures are objects which attract the viewer's attention via changes and variations in their complicated constructive structures.

At the same time, these objects are poly-semantic meditative plastic signs. Raila speaks in an indirect, encoded manner about the menace of the stability and the decay of old structures, about the vulnerability of human beings and their environment.

See more artworks: http://www.raila.lt/

5.4. Eglė Rakauskaitė (Egle Rake)

Eglė Rakauskaitė (b. 1967) is an originator of Conceptual art in Lithuania. Documentations of her performances are exhibited in the permanent exhibition of the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, presenting the history of Contemporary Lithuanian art. Having graduated painting in 1993, Eglė Rakauskaitė actively participated in the life of contemporary art, while her new pieces: conceptual objects, 36

A. Raila, video still “Under the Flag”, 2000

performances, installations, video films and photographs interested exhibition curators and critics in Lithuania and abroad from the very beginning. In 1999 she represented Lithuania for the very first time established a pavilion in the international Venice Biennale on the country’s history. Her work is published in various international publication about the women’s art performance, such as CREAM 100 artist, 10 curators. She is still producing video art pieces.

See more artworks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63xO1BI7Qhs

E. Rakauskaitė, “In Honey”, 1996

5.5. Žilvinas Kempinas

In 2009 Žilvinas Kempinas (b. 1969) represented Lithuania in the 53 th Venice Biennale. In 2007 he was awarded the

Calder Prize and a residency at Atelier Calder. In 2012 Žilvinas Kempinas was awarded the National Prize for Culture and Arts for the conviction of his minimalistic language of contemporary art and its international resonance. He organized solo exhibitions in institutions such as Leme (San Paulo), Yvon Lambert (New York), Baltic Contemporary Art Centre, Gateshead (United Kingdom), Spencer Brownstone Gallery (New York), Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna), Contemporary Art Centre (Vilnius); Palais de Tokyo (Paris); MoMA PS1 (New York).

See more artworks: http://www.daile.lt/artist/kempinas-zilvinas-99159523/

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Ž. Kempinas, “Tube” at 53 Venice Biennale, 2009

5.6. Darius Mikšys Darius Mikšys (b. 1969) represented Lithuania in the 54th (2011) Venice Biennale with the project “Behind the White Curtain”. The project was awarded the special diploma “for the conceptually elegant and ambitiously fruitful presentation of his country’s history of art” by the jury.

Darius Mikšys again distinguished himself abroad when he was selected for the largest Art Prize in the United Kingdom (Artes Mundi). He was nominated among the most interesting artist from Eastern Europe by Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Contemporary Art curator at Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and DOCUMENTA’os (13) curatorial agent, as well as by Anders Krueger, curator of the Antwerp M HKA. Darius Mikšys also performed in the New York performance biennale “Performa09”. Darius Mikšys also participated in the conceptual FormContent project in London. The latter is one of the most active and creative London curatorial unions (http://formcontent.org/), having presented the Lithuanian artist Darius Mikšys in their space.

Darius Mikšys also participated in a group exhibition in the Lisson Gallery in London entitled “Fusform Gyrus”, curated by the internationally renowned Lithuanian curator Raimundas Malašauskas.

D. Mikšys, “"Behind the White Curtain" at 55 Venice Biennale, 2011

See more artworks: http://www.dariusmiksys.com

5.7. Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas

Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas (b. 1968 and 1966) are artists widely known in Lithuania and around the world, proponents of social protest through art, lecturers in one of the most prestigious universities of the world – the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) (abroad they also lectured in the University of Gothenburg, Lahti Institute of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Stockholm Art Academies). They participated in over 50 exhibitions and projects all over Europe and teach a course of interdisciplinary art in the Art Academy in Trondheim, Norway. One of their social projects is the founding of the Pro-test Laboratory alongside the already non-operational cinema theatre “Lietuva”, which urged various social actions to preserve the “Lietuva” cinema theatre. However this project was not limited solely 38

N. and G. Urbonas

with the preservation of the cinema theatre, it also strived to draw the attention of Vilnius’ inhabitants to the issue of public spaces and the non-existence of a proper dialogue between the government, businessmen and residents. In 2007 the artist couple Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas were awarded the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts for their significant input into Interdisciplinary art and the obtainment of the best pavilion prize for “Villa Lituania” in the international Venice Art Biennale.

See more artworks: http://www.nugu.lt/

5.8. Patricija Jurkšaitytė

Patricija Jurkšaitytė’ (b. 1968) practice is an interpretation of famous paintings she found in art history books from the 15th to 17th Century. Removing all traces of the figures that inhabited the original works, only the background scenery remains. This erasure reveals the role, composition, and construction of the interiors and landscapes, and how they influence perceptions of paintings.

See more artworks: http://daile.lt/artist/jurksaityte-patricija-99159581/

P. Jurkšaitytė, “Dutch Sories 3”, 20112012

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CHAPTER SIX: FLUXUS

6.1. Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas (b. 1922) is often called the godfather of the American avant-garde cinema, founder of avant-garde cinema, poet, cinema critic, curator, and philosopher. The Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Centre operates in Vilnius. Jonas Mekas became famous when he created his first films in America, in 1954 he started publishing the “Film Culture” journal. In the 1958 New York newspaper “Village Voice” he founded a cinema section, entitled “Movie Journal”. He began organizing the New American Group, various festivals of avant-garde cinema. In the 1960s he actively participated in the discourse of cinema criticism: he published his texts in “Film Culture Magazine”, ”The Village Voice”, “Sight and Sound”, “Bianco e Nero”, “The American Film”, “The New York Times”, “Cahiers du Cinéma”, “Film Quarterly”. In 1962 he founded The Film Maker’s Cooperative, and in 1964 – The Filmmakers' Cinematheque, which gradually grew into the Anthology Film Archives, one of the largest archive of American avantgarde films in the world. J. Mekas was close to and worked with such world-renowned artists as Jurgis Mačiūnas, Andy Warhol, Nico, Allen Ginsberg, Yoko Ono, John Lennon and Salvador Dalí. Jonas Mekas was awarded prizes and grants from the Allbright – Knox Gallery, Long Warf Theatre Foundation, the New York State Arts Council, Rockefeller Foundation and the National Arts Support Foundation. In 1966 the Philadelphia College of Arts awarded Jonas Mekas a gold medal “for the devotion, passion, and selfless dedication to the rediscovery of the newest art"; in 1997 the Guggenheim Foundation nomination “Guggenheim Fellow”; in 1989 the Brandeis University Award for Creative Arts; in 1992 the Mel Novikoff Award, San Francisco Film Festival; 1992, 2000 Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Ministry of Culture, France; in 1995 the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts; in 1996 Doctor of Fine Arts, Kansas City Art Institute; in 1996 a New York Film Critics Circle Award for his input in the cinematic arts; in 1997 the Pier Paolo Pasolini Award, Paris; in 1997 the International Documentary Film Association Award, Los Angeles; in 1997 the Governor’s Award, Skohegan School of Painting and Sculpture; in 1997 Doctor of Fine Arts, Honoris Causa, Universitatis Vytauti Magni, Lituania. In 2003 Jonas Mekas’ merits in exalting the name of Lithuania, in nurturing and developing cross-border relations, were 40

J. Mekas, “Experimental Movies”, circa 1970

appraised. Jonas Mekas was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. In 2006 the American director was awarded by the Guild Anthology Film Archives for his merits to the cinematic arts. J. Mekas’ film “Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania” was included by the USA National Film Board of Protection into the American list of Protected Films (only 25 films are selected annually into the Congress National Cinema Registry). Los Angeles Film Critics’ Association honored J. Mekas for his input into the cinema culture of the USA.

6.2. Jurgis Mačiūnas

Jurgis Mačiūnas (1931-1978) – one of the founders of the Fluxus movement who exalted the name of Lithuania abroad. The Vilnius Government purchased the entire J. Mačiūnas’ collection for five million dollars – 2600 exhibits.

The first part of the collection was brought to Vilnius in June 2006. In the collection – J. Mačiūnas’ works designed for the “Film-Makers Cinematheque”, “Film Culture” journals, J. Mekas’ projects, unique works and documentation that have to do with the foundation of the Soho district, and works and texts from J. Mačiūnas’ private life. In the Centre of Contemporary Art a permanent Jurgis Mačiūnas’ FLUXUS Cabinet exhibition is established, which in recent years travelled around Europe’s museums with the exhibition “Fluxus – East: Fluxus Nets in Middle Eastern Europe”. The cabinet was founded in 1997, when the Centre of Contemporary Art was awarded the collection of the Gilbert and Lila Silverman, the largest FLUXUS collection in the world.

J. Mačiūnas, “Fluxpost Smile Stamps”, 1977-1978

6.3. Fluxus Cabinet and Fluxus Ministry

The Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) in Vilnius has recently re-opened its permanent exposition of the Jurgis Mačiūnas Fluxus Cabinet, which for three years toured, as a part of the international exhibition “Fluxus East: Fluxus Networks in 41

Central Eastern Europe”, to several museums in Europe. In 1997 the Cabinet was donated to the CAC as a gift from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection; the world's largest collection of Fluxus works, and curated by the influential historian of the Fluxus movement Jon Hendricks. The Cabinet consists of nearly 100 objects and presents work by many of the most important Fluxus artists, including; George Mačiūnas, George Brecht, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, Shigeko Kubota, Ben Vautier, Mieko Shiomi, Henry Flynt, La Monte Young, Yoko Ono, and Ay-O. The collection of the Cabinet, which includes the scores and visual documentation of Fluxus 'events', photos from seminal Fluxus festivals in Wuppertal, Nice and New York, Fluxus newspapers, and other editions, reveals the interdisciplinary nature of this influential artistic movement and its practices, which changed notions about visual arts in the 1960s. Inspired by the Fluxus Movement dating back to the 1960s and its originator, Lithuanian-born American artist Jurgis (George) Mačiūnas, two hundred Lithuanian artists established the Fluxus Ministry in the grungy building of the former Ministry of Health on a major street of Vilnius, Gediminas Prospect. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist anymore.

The Fluxus Ministry Project took place in Vilnius from April 2010 till November 2011 and hosted around one thousand artistic events. In 2012 the concept of “Fluxus Ministry” was transferred to Kaunas where the Fluxus Ministry was opened on the old premises of the shoe making factory Lituanica.

The Ministry will stay in Kaunas for one and a half years.

The Fluxus Ministry initiative features a cross innovation by creating a platform for interaction of artistic ideas and urban planning. It also creates a temporal center of attraction for citizens thus influencing cultural and social landscape of the city. At the same time there is no official organization structure established for the running the Fluxus Ministry.

The initiative is purely voluntary and artists’ consciousnessbased.

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CHAPTER SEVEN: YOUNGER GENERATIONS

7.1 Juozas Laivys (b. 1976) 7.2. Pakui Hardware (Ugnius Gelguda, b. 1977, and Neringa Černiauskaitė, b. 1984) 7.3 Julijonas Urbonas (b. 1981) 7.4. Eglė Budvytytė (b. 1982) 7.5. Ieva Misevičiūtė (b. 1982) 7.6. Robertas Narkus (b. 1983) 7.7. Liudvikas Buklys (b. 1984) 7.8. Elena Narbutaitė (b. 1984) 7.9. Lina Lapelytė (b. 1984) 7.10. Gintaras Didžiapetris (b. 1985) 7.11. Viktorija Rybakova (b. 1985) 7.12. Augustas Serapinas (b. 1990)

7.1. Juozas Laivys Juozas Laivys (b. 1976) – the artist was presented by the Tulips & Roses Gallery. Alongside solo exhibitions at Tulips & Roses, Radvilai Palace, and the “Arka” Gallery, Laivys participated in international group exhibitions in the Contemporary Art Centre Baltic Triennial, the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, the Lyon Biennale, group exhibitions in famous galleries abroad GB Agency and Tulips & Roses. Received awards: in 2007 the Young Creator’s Prize for his innovative testimonial of conceptual art; in 2008 the Individual State Stipend for one year; in 2009 the Ministry of Culture’s diploma for cultural activity.

Although since 2006 Juozas Laivys has settled in a small village of Narvaišiai to lead a farmer’s life, he has stayed one of the most active Lithuanian artists to have exhibited internationally. He shows around 95 public presentation of his work, and is the first exhibition to follow his show last year titled 'Farewell to the Public', which was marked by his announcement to cease from making any more artworks over the next fourteen years. Throughout his work, Laivys continually manipulates established roles and relationships within the contemporary art field.

See more artworks: http://www.cac.lt/en/exhibitions/past/16/7959 43

J. Laivys, “Untitled”, 2016

7.2. Pakui Hardware

Ugnius Gelduda’s works, from the very first years of his studies (which are displayed in various exhibitions) did not remain unnoticed and in 2001 the artist was awarded the Union of the Lithuanian Art Photographers’ Prize (exhibition “Debut”). U. Gelguda in 2006 was also awarded by the LR Ministry of Culture for the best debut of the year.

His audio-visual installation “Žalgiris” was awarded the highest prize in the 2007 International Moscow Arts Festival and awarded a nomination in the 2013 international “Henkel Art” competition in Vienna. Acknowledged for his individual work, the artist began broadening his creative horizons and lately often takes on collaborative projects: from 2009 U. Gelguda began actively cooperating with the art critic, curator and editor Neringa Černiauskaitė. Currently living in New York and Vilnius, the author successfully continues his creative dialogue with various Western authors.

Pakui Hardware, “Shapeshifter, Heartbreaker”, 2015

See more artworks: http://www.pakuihardware.org/ 7.3. Julijonas Urbonas Julijonas Urbonas (b. 1981) – designer, currently considers himself an artist. In Lithuania and abroad he mostly became famous for his scandalous art project “Euthanasia Coaster.

2010“. He is Vice-Rector for Art at Vilnius Academy of Arts, and PhD student in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art, London. “Since childhood, I have worked in amusement park development. In 2004, I became the head of an amusement park in Klaipeda, Lithuania, and ran it for three years. Having worked in this field — also as a designer and engineer — I became fascinated by what in my research I am calling “gravitational aesthetics.” This experience is unavailable elsewhere, and I became intrigued by this underdeveloped topic. Since then the topic has been at the core of my creative practice and artistic research. His work has been exhibited internationally and received many awards, including the Award of Distinction in Interactive Art, Prix Ars Electronica 2010. Actually he is included into Milano Triennal show and he recently finished a show at the Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM).

See more artworks: http://julijonasurbonas.lt/

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J. Urbonas, “Euthanasia Coaster”, 2010

7.4. Eglė Budvytytė

Eglė Budvytytė (b. 1982) - a graduate in photography from the Vilnius Art Academy and in audio-visual studies from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Her practice is defined through a variety of mediums, video, radio broadcast, or performance, and also explores a certain relationship to the environment, and she also curates shows.

She questions the sensitivity and consciousness of what surrounds us through semi-constructed, semi-improvised situations, between fiction and reality, staged scenario and documentary. The artist dissolves the boundaries between the imaginary and the real in order to analyze the social construction of identity and its relationship to the real. Her work has been presented at several art centers in Europe and elsewhere in the world, in particular the Museu de Arte Moderna in São Paulo, the CAC in Vilnius, the Swiss Institute in New York and the TENT in Rotterdam.

E. Budvytytė, “A Choreography for the Running Male”, 2012

See more artworks: http://www.eglebudvytyte.lt/

7.5. Ieva Misevičiūtė

Ieva Misevičiūtė (b. 1982) is a New-York based Slow Loris, working in both visual arts and theater. Her practice combines physical theatre, dance, stand-up, Butoh, perverted academic language and sculptural work. Currently she is working on her Tongue PHD, in which the tongue pierces the head to tickle the bottom of the gut. I. Misevičiūtė worked as a clown in the circus throughout her youth, has backgrounds in various movement and improvisation techniques; holds a research MA in Cultural Analysis and MA in Political Studies from the University of Amsterdam.

She has performed in such venues as (selected): The Kitchen, New York; Time-Based Art Festival, Portland; Beursschouwburg theater, Brussels; DOCUMENTA (13), Kassel; de Appel art center, Amsterdam; Playground Festival, STUK, Leuven; Center Pompidou, Paris; Western Front, Vancouver; Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius; Performa 09 at Swiss Institute, New York; Swiss Sculpture Exhibition Biel-Bienne, Le Mouvement: Performing the City. Misevičiūtė’s recent curated projects include the 11th International Baltic Triennial (retitled Mindaugas Triennial), 45

I. Misevičiūtė, “Tongue Phd”, 2015

CAC, Vilnius (co-curator); a night of performances Alligators!, at de Appel art center, Amsterdam. She was recently a speaker at the Sommerakademie 2014 im Zentrum Paul Klee and is a visiting lecturer at Malmö Art Academy.

See more artworks: http://www.ieva.co/

7.6. Robertas Narkus

Robertas Narkus (b. 1983) describes his art practice as a “management of circumstances in the economy of coincidences”. Robertas holds an MFA degree from the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam; he founded the Institute of Pataphysics in Vilnius; he has performed the performance piece, “Where are My Flip-flops?” at the contemporary art festival Survival Kit in Riga, and recently he had a show at the XII Baltic Triennial of International Art. In his works, Robertas combines the ordinary and the absurd, revealing imaginary and paradoxical layers of the symbolic capital that we call “the real”. The philosophical science of the particular and coincidental – Pataphysics – has been a strong influence on his views and methods in the arts.

See more artworks: http://www.arterritory.com/en/texts/interviews/5051the_coincidences_of_robertas_narkus/; http://www.rupert.lt/wpcontent/uploads/2012/06/robertas_narkus_rupert.pdf

7.7. Liudvikas Buklys Liudvikas Buklys (b. 1984) – recently his solo exhibition “Kaip liežuviai” (Tongues Alike) took place in the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius. He is one of those young artists whose work is more well-known abroad than in Lithuania. In 2009 he graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts, the Department of Sculpture, and in 2012 – from the school of fine arts higher education HISK in Ghent, Belgium. He has organized solo exhibitions in the gallery “Cortex Athletico” in Paris (2014), the art centre “Objectif Exhibitions” in Antwerp (2014), project spaces “Raum für Kunst” in Luzern (2013), the gallery “Tulips&Roses” in 46

R. Narkus, “Turbulence”, 2014

Brussels (2010). His works were exhibited in group projects: in 2014 – “Prototypes” in CAC Vilnius, “The sky is blue in some other way” in the gallery “Elba Benitez” in Madrid, “The excluded third, included” in the “Emanuel Layr” gallery in Vienna, “Frank Chu” in the project space “The Gardens” in Vilnius; in 2013 – “Tussie Mussie” in the project space “1857” in Oslo, “Auditas” in CAC Vilnius, “oO” in the Lithuanian pavilion in the 55th Venice Biennale, the 9th Mercosul biennial in Porto Alegre, exhibitions “Veerle” in the “Sandretto Re Rebaudengo” art centre in Turin and “Underground” in the “kim?” art centre in Riga, “Fusiform Gyrus” in the Lisson Gallery in London and others.

L. Buklys, “Measurement Piece”, 2010

Recent show: http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/tag/liudvikasbuklys/ 7.8. Elena Narbutaitė

Elena Narbutaitė (b. 1984) – already shown internationally in different group shows, in 2016 she will be part of Liverpool BIennal.

Narbutaitė’s sculptures combine influences from life, writing, music history, and conversations with scientists. She likes the nature of discovery, and the difference between discovery and inventions. In her work she tends to create “the unexpected” with the aim to create social situations in which the audience can collectively experience either surprise or confusion. For the Liverpool Biennial 2016, the artist is creating a new musical rhythm with a group of musicians to be played and installed as a soundtrack creating a new atmosphere. In recent years, she has been part of “Northern and Baltic states’ art exhibition – Society Acts” in Modern Museet Malmo; she also exhibited in the group exhibition curated by Raimundas Malašauskas for the 55th Venice Biennale common pavilion of Lithuania and Cyprus in 2013; in the same year she was part of summer show at Lisson Gallery in London, and Peephole in Milan. Elena Narbutaitė’s work also represented Lithuanian art in the exhibition “Lithuanian Art: 2000-2010” in the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius.

Elena Narbutaitė actively participates in the scene of contemporary art in Lithuania as well as abroad.

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E. Narbutaitė, “Joseph”, 2016

7.9. Lina Lapelytė

Lina Lapelytė (b.1984) explores contemporary forms of performativity that are related to rituals of folk, pop music, opera and performance in a context of contemporary art.

Her works are fueled by expression, marked by pastiche and grotesque, contextual and conceptual musicality, theatrical suggestibility, stylized visuality. Performances and operas unfold sensitivity to feminine identity and it’s complex relation to contemporary reality in a manner of tradition of postfeminist art. Lina Lapelyte lives and works in London and Vilnius. She holds a BA in classical violin, a BA in Sound Arts and a MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London. Her performance based practice is rooted in music and flirts with pop culture, gender stereotypes, aging and nostalgia. Her latest works L adies (2015), Hunky Bluff ( 2014) and Candy Shop (2013/2015) were shown in different contexts and locations including the Serpentine Pavilion in London, the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the Venice Architecture Biennial (Venice/Italy).

Her collaborative work with Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė and Vaiva Grainytė, the opera Have a Good Day! (Lithuania, 2011/2013) for ten cashiers, piano and supermarket sounds, holds several awards including the main prize of the Fast Forward Festival (Germany). For this work, the artist group is awarded with the Golden Stage Cross and Young Artist Prize by the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture.

Lina Lapelyte’s works were shown at Baltic Pavilion, Venice Biennial, Venice (2016); Peculiar People, Focal Point Gallery, Southendon Sea/Great Britain (2016), Double Bind, NILO, Reykjavik (2016) and Rupert, Vilnius (2015); Listening, Hayward touring show, (2015); Block Universe, London (2015); Park Nights, Serpentine, London (2014); Baltic CCA, Newcastle (2014); Eye and Lense, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2014); DRAF, London (2014); BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall (2012), London.

See more artworks: http://www.linalapelyte.com/

Ladies, 2015 performance/video 20 minutes (excerpt) https://vimeo.com/143241252 password: lina Hunky Bluff, 2014 Serpentine pavilion (London) / Baltic CCA (Newcastle) performance for females with manly voices, 45min (excerpt) 48

L. Lapelytė, “Hunky Bluff, Park Nights”, 2014

Park Nights 2014: Lina Lapelyte, Hunky Bluff this works has been also released as a set of remixes and is available here: Daata Editions Candy Shop - the Circus, 2013/2015 performance 50 minutes (documentation) a subtle take on hip-hop lyrics involving local men choir, drummer, marching band and video Borealis (Bergen)/Block Universe (London) Block Universe - Lina Lapelytė - 'Candy Shop - The Circus' - Stationer's Hall - 14 June 2015 CCA Glasgow/Queen Elizabeth Hall https://vimeo.com/93088046 password: lina Have a Good Day! 2013 opera/performance 50 minutes (website and the complete work) work for 10 singing cashiers, supermarket sounds and piano haveagoodday.me https://vimeo.com/171930310 password: everydayisagift

7.10. Gintaras Didžiapetris

Gintaras Didžiapetris (b. 1985) – one of the most perspective contemporary artists of the younger generation, who found himself in the contemporary art market very early in his career – firstly recognized abroad, in Europe, and only later in Lithuania. He has organized solo exhibitions in the Museum of Contemporary Arts Villa Croce in Genoa, Italy, the “Objectif Exhibitions” art centre in Antwerp (Belgium), the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius.

Didžiapetris’ work was exhibited in a group exhibition in the Moderna Museet spaces, where the contemporary Northern and Baltic states’ art exhibition “Society Acts – The Moderna Exhibition” took place, also in exhibitions curated

by Raimundas Malašauskas in the 55th Venice Biennale common pavilion of Lithuania and Cyprus, as well as the Lisson Gallery in London.

The main show in Vilnius: http://www.cac.lt/en/exhibitions/past/13/6391

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G. Didžiapetris, “Compass”, 2010

7.11. Viktorija Rybakova

Viktorija Rybakova (b. 1985) – her work is related to our approach to space and architecture and to our perception and expectations about rooms, interiors and exteriors.

Already shown in European institution as KW in Berlin, the two main channels to get in touch with her work are: https://vimeo.com/68941819 http://www.rupert.lt/viktorija-rybakova/ V. Rybakova, “Oo, a preview”, 2014

7.12. Augustas Serapinas Augustinas Serapinas (b. 1990) – is interested in the socially engaged and non-material practice of the previous generations of artists, such as the ones that emerged around the time of his own birth. The early 1990s saw the rise of the “relational” approach to practicing art with, for and through other people. This could also be a good definition for ‘curating’, another term dating from the same period. His experiments with social interaction start from an openness to the encounter, which, as philosopher Alain Badiou points out, differs from experience because it is always based on improbability. The encounter (as a possibility, an act or, if we like, a manifestation of free will) is also fundamentally opposed to the notion of identity (which essentially regulates sameness) and certainly to its instrumentalization as identity politics. Yet Serapinas is not exclusively concerned with the non-material and inter-personal. He has also busied himself with the discovery and construction of ‘secret spaces’: pockets of subjectivity carved out of the rational infrastructure that society tries to build for itself. Recently he had a solo show at DRAF London, in 2015 a solo show at Salts in Basel, in 2014 at Apples in a State of Tax Levy in Brussels. Other international exhibitions were in 2013 Jakubowska 16/3 BWA Warszawa and in 2012 Jõusaal at Raja Gallery in Tallinn. He took part of 6th Moscow Biennale 2015 and in “The Future of Memory- An Exhibition on the Innity of the Present Time “ that took place at Kunsthalle Wien, in 2014.

Best documentation on: http://www.rupert.lt/augustas-serapinas/

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A. Serapinas, “Untitled”, 2015

CHAPTER EIGHT: LITHUANIAN ART INSTITUTIONS Vilnius: - CAC Contemporary Art Centre http://www.cac.lt/en - National Gallery of Art http://www.ndg.lt/EN.aspx - Rupert Residency Centre www.rupert.lt - Exhibition Halls “Titanikas” (Vilnius Academy of Arts) - Baltic Triennial (on international art 2018) at CAC - Lewben Art Foundation www.daile.lt; www.lewbenart.com - Modern Art Center http://www.mmcentras.lt/?lang=2 - Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center http://mekas.lt/about/ Kaunas: - M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art http://www.ciurlionis.lt/about-the-museum - Kaunas Photography Gallery http://kaunasgallery.lt/en/ - Mykolas Žilinskas Art Gallery http://www.muziejai.lt/kaunas/zilinsko_galerija.en.htm - The Kaunas Biennial (of Lithuanian and international art 2017) http://www.bienale.lt/2015/en/ Klaipėda: - Klaipeda Culture Communication Centre http://www.kkkc.lt/en/ - Pranas Domšaitis Gallery http://www.muziejai.lt/Klaipeda/Klaipedos_paveikslu_gale rija.en.htm Nida: - Nida Art Colony Residencies (Vilnius Academy of Arts) http://nidacolony.lt/

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CHAPTER NINE: BIBLIOGRAPHY

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY Raminta Jurėnaitė, Lithuanian Paintings 1960 – 2013, published by MMC, 2014 Vilma Gradinskaitė, Litvak Art in Private Lithuanian Collections, published by Lewben Art Foundation, 2015 Matthew Rampley, Thierry Lenain, Hubert Locher, Andrea Pinotti, Charlotte Shoellglass, Kitty Zijlmans, Art History and Visual Study in Europe (Transnational Discourses and National Frameworks), ISBN 978 90 04 23170 2, ebook on amazon.com Kevin O’Connor, Culture and Customs of the Baltic States (Cultures and Customs of the World, Greenwood march 2006) BIBLIOGRAPHY BY AUTHOR Important note: Selected bibliography includes only monograph in English language.

Most of the Artists included in this research have been interviewed to search their work.

CHAPTER TWO 2.1 Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis Alijušas Grėbliūnas, translated by Diana Bartkutė, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, published by Valery Koreshkov, 1997 2.2 Pranas Domšaitis Exhibition catalogue, Pranas Domsaitis 1880 – 1965, published by Cape Town; Disa ca., 1967 2.3 Jonas Rimša Nijolė Timėnienė, Jonas Rimša. Returning home, published by Lewben Art Foundation, 2015

CHAPTER THREE: PAINTINGS Various authors, Lithuanian Folk Art, published by Vaga, 1993 3.1. THE SOVIET ERA 3.1.1. Silvestras Džiaukštas 3.1.2. Vincentas Gečas 52

3.2. THE SIXTIES 3.2.1. Algirdas Petrulis 3.2.2. Jonas Švažas 3.2.3. Vincas Kisarauskas 3.2.4. Valentinas Antanavičius 3.3. THE SEVENTIES 3.3.1. Antanas Martinaitis 3.3.2. Teodoras Kazimieras Valaitis 3.4. THE EIGHTIES 3.4.1. Kazimiera Zimblytė Kazimiera Zimblytė (Kazė). Akimirkos. Tekstai, Piešiniai, 2005, published by "Lietuvos aidas" gallery, 1999 3.4.2. Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas, published by "Lietuvos aidas" gallery, 2005 3.4.3. Šarūnas Sauka Remigijus Venckus, Sauka Family, published by Russian Museum and Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum, 2012.

CHAPTER FOUR: ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY Agnė Narušytė, The Aesthetics of Boredom. Lithuanian Phpotography 1980-1990, published by Vilniaus Dailės Akademijos leidykla, 2010 4.1. THE LITHUANIAN SCHOOL OF PHOTOGRAPHY 4.1.1. Antanas Sutkus Margarita Matulytė, Antanas Sutkus Retrospective, published by Sapnų sala, 2009 4.1.2. Romualdas Rakauskas Agnė Narušytė, Romualdas Rakauskas Photographs, published by Sapnų sala, 2009 4.1.3. Vitas Luckus Margarita Matulytė, Tatjana Luckienė-Aldag, Vitas Luckus, Catalogue raisonnee (three volumes), 2014 4.1.4. Algimantas Kunčius Who Is Who in Vilnius City, Kaunas, 2003 4.1.5. Aleksandras Macijauskas Lietuvos Kaimo Turguose – Lithunian Rural Markets, Kaunas Gallery, 1968, 1980 4.2. SOCIAL LANDSCAPE 4.2.1. Alfonsas Budvytis Raminta Jurėnaitė, Alfonsas Budvytis 1949-2003, published by Sapnų sala, 2006 4.2.2. Algirdas Šeškus Gintaras Česonis, Šeškus, published by Kaunas Gallery, 2013 4.2.3. Gintautas Trimakas Agnė Narušytė, G. Trimakas, published by Lietuvos fotomenininkų sąjunga, 2016 4.2.4. Remigijus Treigys

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4.2.5. Raimundas Urbonas 4.3. OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS: UNDERGROUND SCENE 4.3.1. Rimaldas Vikšraitis Thomas Wesk, Martin Parr, Rimaldas Vikšraitis, ISBN: 978-609-95146-1-1 4.3.2. Virgilijus Šonta Agnė Narušytė, Virgilijus Šonta 1952 – 1992, published

by Lietuvos Fotomenininku Sąjunga, 2002 4.3.3. Domicelė Tarabildienė Exhibition catalogue, Nosis Laikui (Challenging of Time), published by Lietuvos fotomenininkų sąjunga, 2012 4.3.4. Vytautas Pletkus Agnė Narušytė, Vytautas Pletkus: Vanishing, published

by Kaunas Gallery, isbn 978 609 8099 08 9, 2015 4.3.5. Vytautas Stanionis CHAPTER FIVE: THE NINTIES AND NEW FORM OF ART For all the artists websites are indicated along the text.

- Contemporary Art Center, Lithuanian Art 2000-2010: Ten Years, published by Contemporary Art Centre, 2010 - Kęstutis Kuizinas, Emission 2004, published by Contemporary Art Centre, 2004 - Kęstutis Kuizinas, Emission 2005/2006, published by Contemporary Art Centre, 2006 CHAPTER SIX: FLUXUS For all the artists websites are indicated along the text as best resource for extended bibliography.

6.1. JONAS MEKAS 6.2. JURGIS MAčIŪNAS 6.3. FLUXUS CABINET AND FLUXUS MINISTRY CHAPTER SEVEN: YOUNGER GENERATIONS For all the artists, websites indicated along the text as best resource for extended bibliography.

7.1. JUOZAS LAIVYS 7.2. PAKUI HARDWARE 7.3. JULIJONAS URBONAS 7.4. EGLĖ BUTVYTYTĖ 7.5. IEVA MISEVICIŪTĖ 7.6. ROBERTAS NARKUS 7.7. LIUDVIKAS BUKLYS 7.8. ELENA NARBUTAITĖ 7.9. LINA LAPELYTĖ 7.10. GINTARAS DIDŽIAPETRIS 7.11. VIKTORIJA RYBAKOVA 7.12. AUGUSTINAS SERAPINAS 54