February

(Competitive exhibition “The Best Artwork of the Years 2005-2006” at Kaunas Picture Gallery) Kotryna Džilavjanaitė
www.kamane.lt, 2007 02 02

Pranas Griušys, "Kind-hearted Dog and a Sitting Policeman"

Donata Porvaneckaitė, "Kill me Tenderly"

Jonas Juodzevičius, "November"

Rolandas Karalius, "Trip"

Aušra Barzdukaitė - Vaitkūnienė, "Dedications"

Genovaitė Sasnauskienė, "Reflection"

Vytautas Eigirdas, "Revelation"

In brief: The exhibition of the best artwork of the year is not limited by any criteria. The traditional exhibition organised at M.K.Čiurlionis Art Museum is a live illustration what the endless artistic liberality means. Let admirers of art, who anticipate to see the best and most impressive artworks of the year, not be cheated. It is the most ironical continuous exhibition of art in Kaunas which is presented by organisers themselves with a slight smile on the face. There is only one tenth of valuable works here, and the majority of exhibits could be nominated as the most amateur or absurd works of the year.

The exposition reminds that a twilight zone exists beside professional art. The name of the exhibition is misleading as it invites to get acquainted with the “best” works of the year. Organisers should edit the name so that it would represent the concept of the exhibition more exactly. The exhibition agitates to elect one best artwork but the author of the article states to vote for some ten exhibits. Among them there are painting, sculpture, graphics, textile, inter-disciplinary art works which should be evaluated for the high quality and ended form, more interesting expression and authentic expression of thoughts.

In the field of painting, the paintings of Elena Balsiukaitė and Pranas Griušis stand out of “sweet” landscapes, still-lives and ambiguous abstractions. “Bye-Bye” of E.Balsiukaitė communicates with a spectator in the naïve language of a child. P.Griušys uses excerpts from different times, spaces and meanings in his work "Kind-hearted Dog and a Sitting Policeman".

There are really few exceptional examples of sculpture and object art. “Dew Rose up” of Kęstutis Lanauskas and “Migration of a Starling” of Danielius Sodeika are more outstanding. In the field of textile, “A Scull and Two Simpsons” of Ligita Marcinkevičiūtė and “My Years” of Rūta Luckienė are ahead of other works.

Memorable sheets of graphics are presented by Jūratė Rekevičiūtė, Egidijus Rudinskas ir Evaldas Mikalauskis. A spontaneous emotion, melted energy flashes in the abstracted plate of J. Rekevičiūtė (“Butterfly”). In the work “A Trip to the World Centre” E. Rudinskas demonstrates a precise painting imitating décor of the Middle ages. Inter-disciplinary art is represented well by Eimutis Markūnas and Naglis Rytis Baltušnikas. The negative prints of “Identifications” of E. Markūnas preserve the impressions from the personal exhibition of the artist. N. R. Baltušnikas still attracts the spectator by the original technique of pressed enamel and ironical content (“Hello”), still, new impulses are expected in the author’s works already.

There are several exhibits in the exposition which represent the professionalism and creative capacity of creators. Even though they should not be candidates to the best work of the year, they are capable of affecting a spectator who understands art and who has the right to express his/her positive notes in the form of voting for artworks. One should only be curious how the event will proceed after several years when a bunch of persons who call themselves artists will push away those few really talented artists from the exposition hall.