VYTAUTAS KASIULIS INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION "GARDENS OF PARADISE"


11 December, 2009 – 15 February, 2010

Opening of the exhibition – 11 December, 2009, 4 p. m. and 6 p. m. Entrance with invitations only.
Press conference – 11 a. m.
 

Self-portrait. 1946 Collection of Bronė Kasiulienė

Vytautas Kasiulis (1918-1995) is one of the few Lithuanian artists to have earnt recognition and respect in the global art scene. Modern art museums in Paris and New York, and art galleries and art collectors in Paris, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Argentina, and Australia, among other countries, have as part of their collections works by this artist, deservedly called by art critics one of the most interesting painters of the Paris School from the second half of the 20th century.

French culture has had an unmistakable influence on the development of V. Kasiulis' style, even though he made his way to the city of his dreams, Paris, already as a mature artist, having held exhibitions and produced numerous pieces. From the very beginning of his path of creativity, the artist exhibited particular talent, and a hard-working, dynamic nature. Even while still a student he was awarded several prizes in various competitions for painting composition and posters. His graduation work, which featured a theatre theme, was deemed the best work of its kind to ever be produced in the school's history. From 1942, he exhibited works in shows along with other artists, while his first solo exhibition in 1943 at the Vytautas Magnus Cultural Museum in Kaunas, left the public astonished, with its great number of paintings and drawings and variety of genres. The works appealed to the public for their expressive, interesting and humourous subjects, the strong realism in drawings, and psychologically accurate descriptions. Dark underpainted backgrounds and light effects, reminiscent of the masters from earlier epochs, serve to highlight the neo-traditional character of V. Kasiulis' works.

The artist's fate was determined by the end of the war when he left for Germany in 1944 to refine his skills, as a return to Lithuania proved impossible. V. Kasiulis taught at the Freiburg School of Fine Arts and Crafts, established in 1946, along with other artists who had also been forced to leave Lithuania. He maintained an intensive painting schedule here as well, and participated in exhibitions with other Lithuanian artists and held several personal shows in Kiel, Bad Siegelberg, Hamburg, and Freiburg. It is here that the artist's style undergoes a change -the colouring becomes lighter and gains clarity; space gives way to decorative planes, and there is a departure from perspective, and the shape of objects and figures are composed according to an ornamental principle.

Woman with the artist. 1948 Collection of Bronė Kasiulienė

The artist embarked on a new stage in his life when he arrived in Paris in 1948. Despite the difficult circumstances and relative privation he faced, the artist worked hard, producing paintings, watercolours, and drawings using pastels. Art collectors and gallery owners did not take long to discover Kasiulis - in 1949 his first exhibition in Paris was held at the Raymond Duncan Gallery, and in 1950 a show at the Christian-Gilbert Gallery heralded the beginning of V. Kasiulis' success and recognition. From then on he continued to hold an exhibition in Paris every year, and from 1954 his works were exhibited in Berlin, New York, Cleveland, Toronto, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Geneva, and other cities in Europe and North America.

While living in Paris, the stylistic manner characteristic to V. Kasiulis was formed; a masterful play on line, a brilliant colouring of refined consonance, and light and playfully stylised shapes. The artist also further refined his personal painting method, which he discovered in his youth, where the structure of an image is reminiscent of a photographic negative, with strokes of light flashes lifting up from a darker background. The artist chose well-known motifs from Paris street-life for his compositions: musicians and dancers, circus artists, book and flower stalls, as well as artists' studios and cafe scenes. Improvisation, spontaneous brushwork, colour and line fireworks, a subtly ironic approach and the upbeat mood present in V. Kasiulis' works transform scenes of everyday life into a strange spectacle, balancing between reality and fantasy. Many who have written about V. Kasiuiis' works have compared him to Raoul Duffy, Georg Rouault, and Marc Chagall, among other famous painters of the Paris School, distinguishing his individualism.

As part of this retrospective V. Kasiulis exhibition at the Lithuanian Art Museum around 150 of his works have been brought together from museums, galleries, churches, and private collections. The large collection of V. Kasiuiis' paintings have been provided for this exhibition by Bronė Kasiulienė, who is preserving the artist's lasting legacy in Paris with great love and care. The exhibition, which covers all of the artist's periods of development, gives the Lithuanian public an exclusive opportunity to get an insight into this talented Lithuanian's uniquely styled artistic world.

Curator Laima Bialopetravičienė