Household relations within the works of Lithuanian artists: views of three well-known creators Tradition

We current to readers the works of artists Nijolė Vrubliauskaitė-Liutkevičienė, Elena Kniukštaitė and Eglė Rakauskaitė and their tales, which include each autobiographical openness and indicators of the occasions.

The portrait of a mom and daughter exhibits the inside experiences of ladies

Though {couples} and relations are sometimes depicted as equally necessary in artworks, the mom’s determine stands out within the household photos exhibited within the MO Museum exhibition “This isn’t with us”. The burden of society’s expectations usually falls on moms’ shoulders at dwelling – they’re anticipated to help household and nationwide traditions, earn cash, and handle the family.

A girl’s inside experiences, usually imbued with existential emotions, unhappiness and longing, are a frequent motif of the works of the artist Nijolė Vrubliauskaitė-Liutkevičienė (1950 – 2021). The artist herself didn’t obtain a lot recognition throughout her lifetime – she participated in only some joint exhibitions, and her work entered the collections of Lithuanian museums solely not too long ago.

Picture by Jonas Balsevičiaus/Nijolė Vrubliauskaitė-Liutkevičienė’s work within the MO museum exhibition

Along with the inside world of ladies, in her works, the artist explored the themes of isolation, which arose from the hazard of Soviet repression. These two themes meet within the portray “Lady with Daughter”, by which a stoic lady silences her daughter along with her hand, stopping her from talking, whereas within the background stands the ominous Crucifix, a logo of martyrdom for the religion.

Though the portray might have been meant for the Soviet suppression of Catholicism in Lithuania, at this time it may be learn as a suppression of 1’s personal company and id, attribute of patriarchal custom and spiritual dogmas. They’re usually handed on to kids via mother and father, and particularly via moms, who had been and sometimes nonetheless are the one ones chargeable for elevating kids.

An uncommon household portrait

People artist, painter, photographer Elena Kniukštaitė (b. 1950) calls herself a folks artist. Certainly, the artist’s work replicate a peculiar folks worldliness, a naive portray model near folks artwork. E. Kniukštaita was vastly influenced by naïve artwork, which the painter creatively adopted and recreated in her personal means.

It did not take lengthy for the artist, who was skilled as a photographer, to get uninterested in the great thing regarding weddings and the festive bustle, which she watched to her coronary heart’s content material whereas working in varied Vilnius picture studios. E. Kniukštaita was far more involved with exhibiting the inside richness of an individual. Nonetheless, the echoes of pictures are clearly seen within the artist’s portray: human figures are gathered collectively in a pose, in order that the photographs are impeccably reasonable, and even higher – they solemnly seize the second.

Dom Rimeika’s picture/Elena Kniūkštaitė’s work on the MO museum exhibition

She transferred the sense of composition acquired within the picture studio to the portray “Group portrait with a cuckoo”. In it, the girl is the apparent head of the household with a Führer’s mustache. This displays the acquainted dynamics of the Soviet household: the working mom is the de facto head of the family, bearing the brunt of the work, whereas the husband turns into the sofa patriarch, unwilling or unable to become involved in childcare and wider household life.

The household’s gender function dynamics are hidden within the sweetly idyllic setting of the household portrait. Quick-haired, pink-clad kids and costumed parental figures muddle the scene and lift the query: who’re girls and boys, men and women, and what does it imply to be one?

A daughter’s confrontation along with her father – in a murals

Eglė Rakauskaitė (b. 1967), one of many best-known creators of up to date artwork in Lithuania, the writer of performances, video performances, and video installations, within the video piece “Father” exhibited on the MO exhibition confronts her father, some of the necessary representatives of the Lithuanian college of pictures, Romualdas Rakauskas.

E.Rakauskaitė permits the digicam to witness the reconsideration of the kid’s relationship with the daddy – a painful and uncomfortable act for the kids of usually emotionally indifferent mother and father who grew up in a area making an attempt to heal from deep-rooted psychosocial traumas.

Jonas Balsevičius’s picture/Eglė Rakauskaitė’s work within the MO museum exhibition

The dialog between father and daughter takes place within the red-lit picture lab of R. Rakauskas – the place the place many fantasies intertwined with social norms had been embodied within the pictures of the “Blooming” cycle. The artist says that she solely remembers herself as a baby from pictures taken by her father, and the artist’s face seems on the paper dipped within the developer tub. Whereas soaking herself in a heat tub, she confesses to the viewers concerning the insurmountable chasm separating her and her father, the space of house and time.

Romuald Rakauskas’ cycle “Flowering” and Rakauskaitė’s video work “Father” are proven collectively for the primary time. E.Rakauskaitė critically rethinks her father’s work, asks concerning the path and intentions of his pictures within the “Blooming” cycle and different eroticized photos of younger girls’s our bodies.