In Vilnius – getting to know female artists from the Baltic countries who transcended the ideological principles of the Soviet era | Culture

“The opening international exhibition of three artists from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia breaks the curtain from the work of artists who defied aesthetic, thematic and norms, exposes the flaws of the Soviet system and updates the works that did not receive attention in their time.

The work of Marija Teresė Rožanskaitė, which is returning to today, is particularly pleasing – we present her and the artist duo Pakui Hardware’s exhibition “Ignition” at the soon-to-be-started Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art. Therefore, both Lithuanian and international audiences will be able to discover the artist’s work this year”, says the general director of the Lithuanian National Art Museum and commissioner of the National Pavilion, dr. Arūnas Gelūnas.

“We hope that visitors will be interested in taking a look around the 20th century. the creative legacy of female artists of the second half, which testifies to the position of Estonian Leis, Latvian Tabaka and Lithuanian Rožanskaitė, who opposed the official canon and at the same time reflected the times.

Lithuanian National Museum of Art/MTRožanskaite, X-Ray Therapy

The older generation of viewers know the authors better from painting triennials and other joint exhibitions organized during the Soviet era, where their works met. There were few solo exhibitions of women at that time. Today, we see an increased interest in the bright work of women, which did not gain resonance in its time,” says Ilona Mažeikienė, director of the Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum.

The international exhibition focuses on the creative pursuits of women

The exhibition coming from the KUMU Museum in Tallinn to the LNDM Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum is dedicated to the works of three Baltic artists – Mallė Leis (1940-2017), Maija Tabaka (1939) and Marija Teresė Rožanskaitė (1933-2007) – from the end of the Soviet era, the 1980s and 1990s. for creativity.

Leis, Tabaka and Rožanskaitė are three outstanding artists in Soviet-occupied Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The education they received at the art institutes in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius in the 1960s and 1970s was similar in terms of ideological and aesthetic principles, but the creators quickly broke out of these imposed norms: they did not necessarily directly oppose the art canon of that time, but questioned and shook the prevailing perception of what should be art

Estonian Art Museum/M.Leis, Woman goes away

The works of the artists crossed the boundaries of the era

According to the organizers of the exhibition, the title “Unframed” refers not only to the boundaries broken by the works of all three artists, but also to new horizons of interpretation. All three artists have created works in which their heroine steps out of the space of the painting and turns her back to the viewer, opening up visual metaphors of exit or penetration into new territory. In other paintings, the artists play with multiple frames, evoking the sense of a stable and shared reality.

Although the works of the artists weave a productive polylogue, they are far from similar. The structure of the exhibition is as follows – in some parts, all three artists are represented almost equally, others are defined by the works of one of these artists, supplemented by a comment or the intervention of another’s works, some oppositions are based on meaningful similarities, others – on intriguing differences.

The exhibition is prepared in accordance with the research and exhibition program of art history of the Baltic region carried out by the KUMU Museum, which aims to break out of national structures and discover the connections between the art history of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The exhibition continues the museum’s initiative to draw attention to the role of women artists in various historical periods.

The exhibition opened at the Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum will be complemented by curatorial tours led by art critic dr. Program of Laima Kreivytė and creative workshops.

The exhibition will be open until September 8.