COMMERCIAL ART: ON THE BORDER OF ARTISTRY 0

2007-02-12

(Painting exhibition “So That Nobody Would Think” at the gallery Kauno Langas) Kotryna Džilavjanaitė
www.kamane.lt, 2007 02 08

Paulius Juška, "A Look Beyond"

Paulius Juška, "Two Sides"

Paulius Juška, "Dessert"

Miglė Grigonytė, "Blue"

Onutė Juškienė, "A Ram with Horns Enmeshed in a Shrub"

In brief: “So that nobody would think that: I do not know how to mix green and red, that I see no difference between burnt umber and natural, that I have not read books of A.Periušas, that I do not know how it is hard to live today for an artist, that no luxurious interior wall rises when painting, that I do not know how to create a commercial work, that the feeling of barrenness is strange to me, that I do not search for inspiration in nature, that I do not admire Rembrandt, E.Manet, A.Matisse, that I am not interested in contemporary art, that we do not need attention.”

 

If not for the provoking annotation, the exhibition “So That Nobody Would Think” would not have arisen the interest most probably. The advance scepticism was caused to the author by the fact that works were exhibited in the commercial art gallery with the aim to sell them. Commercial art does have a niche in the market, it does not even try to compete with the high-level art. Meanwhile, the text of the exhibition – the written one and the visual – reveals the wish to find a balance between the creativity and conditions dictated by art market.

 

The frankness of authors looks attractive - the participants do not avoid admitting that they focus on the taste of buying audience. Salon art should not be described as tasteless production as it also has different quality layers, it depends on the ability of authors and may catch the audience of various types. Still, such features as the external expression of an artwork, fashionable and extravagant colours, varnished or gilded surfaces, abundance of plant elements, graceful lines have been used from the times of Secession and Art Deco styles and describe the salon style well.

 

The participants of the exhibition “So That Nobody Would Think” were striving to present commercial art of high level – at least it is meant by the annotation. However, the reality is different. The majority of authors lacked mastery and imagination; therefore, one may not expect salon paintings worth Edward Burne-Jones or Henri Gervex.

 

In fact, several works ignore the conditions of commercial art in general and are close to the concept of elite painting. The works of Paulius Juška, who fulfils the requirements of hyper-realism well, are attractive. The paintings “Dessert” and “Two Sides” deny the aesthetics of “beauty”, and the “Look Beyond” cast across the shabby windowsill represents the illusion of space.

 

Šarūnė Bartašiūtė – Kaupienė and Lina Karaliūtė are also not charmed by beauty effects. The latter author is exceptional by the geometrical abstractions of rather dark character (“Chocolate”), and Š. Kaupienė makes one stop at a live and almost impressionist work "Passers-by".

 

Miglė Grigonytė is more inclined to a sweet view but performs it by making an effect by abstract colour spots (“Blue”, “Sweetness”). The landscape with a boat of Agnė Juškaitė (“Preila”) is eye-catching, but the work “Raining” is not very natural. The paintings of Ieva Skauronė left a rather poor impression as they reveal the gaps of professional knowledge. Meanwhile, the atmosphere of magic realism and fairy-tale like motives in Onutė Juškienė works lets one call the author the first lady in the salon painting exhibition.

 

In brief:Thus, several exhibits of the exhibition “So That Nobody Would Think” are most probably worth a luxurious interior wall about which the participants of the event dream about. Salon, commercial art also requires artistic mastery and fantasy – so that nobody would think that high prices of works may be justified by any offered commodity.


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