IN MEMORIAM OF A.VAITKŪNAS. FROM LIFE OF ANGIS MEMBERS 0
Aušra Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienėwww.kamane.lt, 2008 10 19 Angis members at Kaunas cafe Skliautas in 1997. Looking from the left – A.Vilpišauskas, A.Obcarskas, A.Vaitkūnas.Looking at lists of exhibitions that took place in Lithuania in the ninth decade of the last century, one may notice that members of Angis group participated in the majority of them.The victory of democracy opened up borders for culture, exchanges of exhibitions and artists’ dialogues.A friend of Arūnas, painter Evaldas Valseris from Austria got in touch with colleagues artists in Lithuania. An exhibition was organised at his initiative: “Moscow-Vilnius-Kaunas/13 Positions for Time. Year 1990-1991”. Arūnas, Jonas Gasiūnas, Rimvydas Jankauskas-Kampas (1957 - 1993) participated in this exhibition.A huge exhibition of Austrian and Lithuanian artists ”Negating Borders/Grenzganger” was opened at M.K.Čiurlionis Art Museum and M.Žilinskas Art Gallery in Kaunas and later at the Lithuanian Art Exhibition Centre in Vilnius in 1992 according to the concept of E.Valseris, president of the Austrian Artists’ Union MAERZ. The painter Laima Drazdauskaitė participated along with Angis members - Arūnas, J.Gasiūnas, Vytautas Dubauskas, Kampas.The poster of the exhibition was created by the graphic Edmundas Saladžius. Arūnas was occupied with organisational issues. J.Gasiūnas used to come form Vilnius frequently. Angis members met at Arūnas’ workshop, sometimes at home of Antanas Obcarskas.Painters communicated intensively in those times. Kampas (1957 - 1993) painted his huge works in Kaunas then. He burned himself in creation and life without pity. Angis members did not succeed to meet with him frequently. Arūnas had to visit Kampas on some issue regarding the exhibition. The painter lived in the former synagogue at that time in Šv. Gertrūdos Street (the premises belonged to Kaunas Art Institute as workshop).Arūnas: "I came to Kampas in the synagogue. It was March and cold outside. He used a big hall for painting. It was very suitable for his large-scale formats, one could see the full painting. He painted the interior of the synagogue. Pages from books of Vincas Kapsukas were scattered around. Kampas drew sketches on covers of books. He spent nights there and had a house constructed from Lenin and V. Kapsukas’ books in order not to freeze. I don’t know where he took so many books from.”Kampas used to invite Arūnas to his exhibitions and ask for his opinion. They both talked and clarified something. Arūnas was interested in Kampas’ paintings. He enjoyed the big formats of Rimvydas, the freedom. Still, he used to think and speak often that the artist could have too little time for painting works due to such self-destruction.“But perhaps one should give all the soul, melt in creation and that’s it. Perhaps it is impossible to paint such works as the ones of Kampas in another way,” considered Arūnas.Sometimes it seemed to Arūnas that Kampas’ works were slightly shallow, he compared them with loud music, trumpets. He searched for multiple layers and depth in his creation. Still, a kind of competition with Kampas could be sensed in Arūnas’ intonations sometimes.