September

Aušra Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė
www.kamane.lt, 2007 09 07

Motif “For a Composition with a Bone”.

A.Vaitkūnas. “Composition with a Bone”. 2004, oil, canvas, 90x40.

A.Vaitkūnas. “Skull”. 1993, Kernavė, oil, canvas.

“The time will come to go under the ground again,” Arūnas loved repeating. “The man is like a mushroom – he/she grows, stays for a moment and becomes a rotten one soon”.

He painted bones that autumn again. The motive is often traced in his works.

A good work is “Bishops’ Bones” (it is the ownership of Birutė Garbaravičienė at the moment).

A canvas of small format “Skull” was painted in Kernavė even earlier.

I remember the painting “Old Hay and a Hoof” which I painted in Bikuškis estate of Dalia Gruodienė during the plein air in 2003. I could not understand why Arūnas kept saying to me that the work was like his: “You painted just like me here.”

I was angry at him, of course, I could not lose my originality. Arūnas also sulked when I said that he got in his sight something from me. He used to come while I was painting and teased me: “You are painting like me. You copy everything from me.”

He knew how to tease repeating and changing the places of my words.

Later when I was collecting and preparing Arūnas works for the jubilee exhibition after his death, I found the work “Skull” in the workshop. I have not seen this canvas earlier and it was a real surprise to me. I understood what Arūnas wanted to say to me earlier. The colours and strokes were very similar, and the motive was similar.

We thought in a similar manner; there was no confrontation. Arūnas cherished tradition more, even though the search for novelties was also important to him. He strived for novelty and actuality thinking well about it, purifying it so that it would not be fashion or temporary fancy.

Deep feeling and intellect was the inseparable unity in creation for him.

He rediscovered the beloved motif with a bone in autumn of 2004. Unfortunately, the work remained unfinished. The bone is located in the centre of the work and seems like a menacing fist, a window is seen in the background. This and another side. Another space is behind the window, it may not be seen and it is unfamiliar, as the window reflects our side. It is a symbolic work.

It is a pity it has not been finished; however, it remained as a sign that everything is a process, most probably.