ALTERNATIVE GUIDE: THE LOST ARTISTIC KAUNAS

Art salon and exhibition space of Lithuanian Artists’ Union was established in Rotušės Square 27 in 1988.

Our Old Town is becoming more beautiful, as it smooths out the creases of time. It can be clearly visible in the case of Rotušės Square, where new institutions are opened in restored on a regular basis. This week, the first visitors were invited to Dailė store-salon, located next to the Old Town Post Office (Rotušės Square 27). In stylishly installed and moderately stylised premises (interior design by architect A. Tamulevičienė), decorated with unique copper and thick glass lamps pleasant for viewers to see, and making it pleasant for shopping assistants to work there.

The first floor is dedicated to both mass-produced and small-editions of the works of art; here one can find a gift, a souvenir or a decorated accent for their interior: a wide selection of amber and metal jewellery, textile, ceramics and wooden works. The second floor is for the art salon, with exhibitions and trade taking place on a regular basis. Now those who love art can purchase paintings by V. Povilaitis, R. Vaitiekūnas, A. Krištopaitis, M. Kulikauskienė, V. Ostrauskienė, V. Zalensienė, E. Survila, graphic plates by A. Pakeliūnas, R. Čarna, G. Kalpokas, watercolours by P. Stauskas, P. Porutis and works by other authors.

Another place opened in Kaunas Old Town.

R.Kanopkaitė, Kauno tiesa, Kūrybinė savaitė, 06 02 1977

INSTALLATIONS AND HAPPENINGS BY A GROUP OF ARTISTS CALLED POST ARS

We got a permission to present an exhibition of installations in the exhibition space of Kaunas Artists’ Union in 1990. We were full of energy and courage: it is now or never! At noon, sharp bells rung on the radio. Musicians of Česius band started playing in various places of the Rotušės (Town Hall) Square inviting people to the exhibition. The first room is “mine”: skis on the cardboard sheets; among them, wide colourful strokes titled “Radiator”; on the other side, 96 loaves of bread nailed to the boards [XXX]. The second room is for Česius: three pentagon stars made from swine heads. In the third one, Robertas installed some unique cemetery: epitaphs from paper, glass and cotton wool. It is hard to describe what has been going on there. Maybe the best word could be bewilderment. No one has seen anything like this before. Nothing of this sort has taken place in Lithuania before. We chose such drastic measures to show that we exist. Some boasted us, others criticised, cursed, scolded, taught and educated…

Eternally temporary art. Monologues, commentaries and evaluations and literary considerations by painter Aleksas Andriuškevičius. Aleksas Andriuškevičius.

Nemunas, 1995 No. 10, p. 17.

On the third day, we were asked to remove the installation. The art historian Alfonsas Andriuškevičius, the ideological godfather of the Post Ars group, arrived from the capital and gave the supervisor of the rooms 25 roubles, so she would suffer the stench for one more day for the sake of the emerging new art. She would have probably suffered through it, but the owners of the premises refused.

Meno skandalai. Žilvinė Petrauskaitė.

Kauno diena, 31 05 2003.

Later, during the Post Ars land art event in Zatyšiai, art historian Alfonsas Andriuškevičius met the art historian Kęstutis Kuizinas and justified himself for “wearing tall military boots not because of the swampy landscape of the event, but because he expected to win the game of catch played with a conservative sculptor from Kaunas V. Žirgulis who would probably follow him.”

Naujametė kalba (New Year’s Speech), Kęstutis Kuizinas.

Šiaurės Atėnai, 09 01 1991

The Club of the House of Architects was established in 1987 (Vilniaus g. 22). It later became home to the first private gallery in Lithuania, called AL.

House of the Kaunas Division of the Architects’ Union became a place friendly for new forms of art.  During the times of Sąjūdis, it was the gathering place of the Culture Club. It also hosted popular New Year’s Exhibitions and various examples of conceptual art. Even though a considerable number of artists and society did not accept the expressions of new art, at the junction of the 1980s and the 1990s, several spots friendly for such creativity were formed together with a certain institutional background that allowed Kaunas to become the capital of new art for several years.

A highly significant place for this purpose was the first private Kaunas Art Gallery AL, managed by Albertas Stankevičius.

In June 1990, in the House of Architects, the Post Ars group hosted an exhibition-action and announced their manifesto. It was one of the first times, when artistic action took place not only in the gallery space, but street as well. The audience was not limited to the artistic public, but included passers-by in the street as well. Moreover, this exhibition was some sort of response to the first exhibition by Post Ars and the reaction received from the Kaunas community of artists to it: some of the “spermatozoa” created by Lukenskas were made from the faeces of a dog which ate pig heads exhibited during the first show.

…There are rumours that Vincentas Gečas, who has been the rector of Vilnius Institute of Art for quite some time, made a deal with Kaunas authorities, and thus got this building for the use of Kaunas Division of Vilnius Institute of Art. They could have given a better one, but they probably thought that such a shack will do for artists. 

(…) The last time, it had served as a workshop of a gifted painter Rimvidas Jankauskas-Kampas (may he rest in peace), where he worked not at some corner[1], but the great hall of prayer for two years. This is where he created his largest canvases and painted the Visions of the Synagogue. In the hall, he made a small shed (so it would be warmer during winter), some sort of version of the Bethlem stable, where the author gave birth to his ideas. Nearby, sculptors Danielius Sodeika, Zigmas Survila, Alfonsas Vaura made sculptures, and cast bronze in the basement. (…)

For most of Kaunas artists, the Synagogue has been a magnet for two decades, appealing because of its free thinking and the aura of unconventional lifestyle surrounding it.
– Do you remember the painting by Paul Gauguin “Are You Jealous?”

– Yes. But it happened so long ago and so far away. In Polynesia.
Then I will ask you:

– Have you been to the Synagogue?

Synagogue. Raimonda Kogelytė-Simanaitienė.

Literatūra ir menas, 11 05 1996

The event “Good bye, Synagogue” took place in 1996. It was initiated by a gallery owner Irena Mikuličiūtė. The event (sharing name with a painting by R. Jankauskas-Kampas) was dedicated to the celebration of this legendary informal place of art.

 Could my Kaunas be a grandmother? Or the map of Kaunas according to Gintarė Adomaitytė.

At different times, there were the workshops of Jonas Vaitys, Petras Stauskas, Antanas Žmuidzinavičius, Vytautas Povilaitis, Leonas Strioga, Antanas Martinaitis, Ričardas Vaitiekūnas, Robertas Antinis, Robertas Antinis jr., Aldona Kabailaitė-Zalensienė, Bronius Zalensas, Domicelė Tarabildienė, Konstancija Tulienė, Tiju E. Vaivadienė, Steponas Varašius, Dalia Valatkienė, Aldona Pociūtė-Juškevičienė, Pranas Bartulis, Bronislovas Petrauskas, Jadvyga Mozūraitė-Klemkienė, Vladas Žuklys, Violeta Staneikienė, Dana Laurenčikaitė, Vitalija Bartkuvienė, Kęstutis Žitkus, etc.

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Newspaper extracts:

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[At the beginning of 1958], city’s Executive Committee has granted Kaunas division of Lithuania’s SSR Union of Soviet Painters, a new and spacious house in Pergalės Krantinė. The management of Painter’s Union has assigned these premises to a group of painters to establish personal creative workshops. Intensive creative life has already started in these workshops. (…)
Without personal workshops, the new premises will also host the Administration of Kaunas Division of LSSR Soviet Artists’ Union. In the hall of the building, artists will host meetings, display their works, organise discussions, exhibitions, etc.

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In the New Creative Workshops. Artist B. Klova; Kauno tiesa, 18 March 1958

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R. Antinis about Jūratė and Kastytis: When leaving the factory, labour people want to rest from the humming of machines, from the clinking of the abacus. This is where art can be at one’s service: a good sculpture from our folk tales and the world of myths. We need to remove traditional figures from parks and fountains: may the artists dedicate their works to embellish the environment. Right here, I am making Jūratė and Kastytis to decorate a fountain. I have several sketches for Neringa and Naglis… I find the beauty of the body appealing: the gracefulness of lines, dynamics, the rhythm, the liveliness of the thought…

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Talks in the Artist Workshops of Kaunas. M. Zakavičiūtė; Kauno Tiesa, 30 August 1959

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‘Look, Požėla!’ Kabailaitė tugged my sleeve. I turned around. Indeed, there was a young man sitting in the canteen, the spitting image of Karolis Požėla.” told me Valerija Zalensienė, the author of the painting “Karolis Požėla in the Underground Printing House”. “I completely forgot my food and followed my ‘victim‘ attentively with my eyes. I stopped working on this painting precisely because I did not have a model for Požėla. Should I come and ask him? What if I am to be ridiculed? So, my friend and I, we approached the exit carefully. But the graduate of the Veterinary Academy seemed compliant. This is how we are hunting the guys! You walk on the street, look around in the market, at the cinema, expecting maybe… While you may think that the picture is complete, that I can be calm since I have already got the funding from the Council of Art, yet I can’t sleep at night, because it does not look how it is supposed to look. One needs to look for another composition… You complete a larger thematic painting and you make a promise to yourself: enough. A portrait is easier. A topic of children is easier. A watercolour is better… But here we go again, you get another idea and you get involved again.

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But I am talking about myself all the time. in front of me, you can see an arc welder by Zalensas, my husband, in the background of Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant. This is “To the Communal Work [in the virgin lands]” by Aldona Kabailaitė. Chasing those faces and wanting to become acquainted with the pace of this life, my friend travelled with students to help with the harvest.

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Talks in the Artist Workshops of Kaunas. M. Zakavičiūtė, Kauno tiesa, 30 August 1959.

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At 4 PM, the doors of the artist workshops in Pergalės krantinė (Victory Embankment) swing open. One notices an exhibition of completed works and sketches made by artists. A lot of people in the audience. You can see a high school teacher and a student, lawyer, doctor, worker and a housewife… (…)

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Only a year passed, but the sight of workshops has changed completely. There are a couple of new portraits on the walls of the room of painter P. Stauskas: landscapes of the Old Town and emerging new industrial ones… Sculptor V. Žukys has created the models for sculptures “Prof. Žmuidzinavičius” and “1863”, while the workshop of the People’s Artist of the Lithuanian SSR assoc. prof. J. Vaitys looks like a miniature picture gallery.

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We visited the workshop of a painter A. Žmuidzinavičius as well. Here people swarm in numbers like in the beehive. A. Žmuidzinavičius, People’s Artist of the Lithuanian SSR, is happy: “today is an open-door day indeed. 300 people have already visited [the workshop] today…”

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So Many News! After Visiting Artist Workshops. M. Milčiūtė; Kauno tiesa, 18 April 1962

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Passers-by notice people leaving the house No. 29 at Pergalės Krantinė (Victory Embankment) and coming back with sketch artists. These are the workshops of Kaunas artists.

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This is where portraits, landscapes, sculptures, etc. are born. This is where you can see the Soviet Kaunas: new constructions, large cranes, a group of children hanging around…

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“During these days, with our daily life and well-being improving, we, the artists, have to address the goals of the party and members of the government, announced during the meeting with creative employees during the second All-Union Congress of Artists”, tell us M. Dūdienė, secretary of Kaunas Division of Lithuanian SSR Artist Union. “We are the employees of the ideological front responsible for the education of the communism builders and the generation of communism. So, we want for our works to reflect the new features of the Soviet person, his/ her works, joys, progress and pursuits building the communism of tomorrow… To educate our youth through revolutionary traditions of our folk. In this case, our artists have already achieved something: J. Vaitys is about to complete the composition Rugiapjūtė (Rye Harvest), H. Rudzinskas is making a sculpture based on the life of children called Collectors of Herbs, E. Survila is creating a composition Construction Workers, Lithuanian SSR People’s Artist professor  J. Janulis has published a work to commemorate the 200^th anniversary of the writer A. Strazdas. (…)”.

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Episodes from the Lives of Painters. S. Paškauskas. Kauno tiesa, 4 July 1963

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In the workshop, the bohemian life was prevailing, it is necessary to mention this word. They drank only coffee and cognac. Sometimes it was difficult for them to get back home… Rimša, Žmuidzinavičius would frequent those workshops. This was the bohemian life in that workshop, they did not even have time to go back home and eat.

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Irena Žuklytė-Bagdonienė, from a book by Vytautas Povilaitis / ed. R. Andriušytė-Žukienė, G. Andziukevičius, K. Budrytė-Genevičė. Kaunas: Draugų studija, 2012, p. 42.

VMU Art Gallery 101 (Laisvės al. 53) was opened in 2008. The opening featured an exhibition Fabulae Moventes (Moving Stories, introducing the works by Vladislovas Starevičius, Henrikas Gulbinas, Gintaras Česonis, Psilicone Theatre) and a performance by the Post Ars group (Robertas Antinis, Česlovas Lukenskas).

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The opening of the gallery became famous, as the media publicised a scandal regarding “tortured” chicken, that engaged not only commenters from the Internet, but various state institutions. As one reviewer of the exhibition wrote:

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Nothing artistic happened. Covered in dust from food products, terrified and crumpled, chickens were caught and put into boxes. Digging in a pile of trash, R. Antinis was looking for birds covered that he jokingly referred to as the victims of art. Č. Lukenskas helped with the recovery of the birds affected. He brought all the chickens that survived the blow of art to live with his relatives in the village. The performance was over. The screams of birds went silent. The gallery was opened. The only question that remains: is there art worth the suffering of a helpless animal?

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New Gallery Opened with Tortured Chickens. Vida Savičiūnaitė.

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Lietuvos rytas, 17 03 2008.

House of Artists – Menininkų  Namai (House of Art Workers) was opened in September 1972 in S. Nėries g. 56 (now V. Putvinskio g.).

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After summer’s respite, employees of Home of Art Workers (S. Nėries g 56) joined again the active cultural life of the city. On September 6, the new season was started with an opening of exhibition of Union’s cinema and theatre artists and grand piano music recital. by R. Jagminas. (…) It is now possible to purchase a season ticket for students, and to the lectoriums “Culture and Labourer” and “In the Power Plant”. A musical cycle has been prepared for the academic youth, featuring separate evenings for the violin, chamber/ organ music and jazz. Students will have an opportunity to meet Lithuanian SSR People’s Artist E. Paulauskas and People’s Artist D. Trinkūnas, composers E. Balsys, V. Ganelinas, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and Vilnius Quartet. In Elektra factory, a series of evenings will be hosted, featuring poetry and music events as well as conversations about theatre. (…).

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A large part of events this season will be dedicated to the 60^th anniversary of the Great October. They will unite employees of all fields of art and cultural areas. The programme features an exhibition “The Artists of Kaunas for the 60^th Anniversary of October”, a large joint evening of creative unions in the Musical Theatre, conversations in “October and Culture”, “October and Our City” and meetings with the veterans of revolutionary fights.

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The New Season of The House of Art Workers. K. Radvilaitė, Kauno tiesa, Creative Week. 11 September 1977

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[Hana Šumilaitė]: When I started working in the House of Artists a few years ago (back then, there was a person from the Party in charge), artists did not come to this place. They had to be tempted back by little by little: [ I had to] call almost every one of them personally and invite to the evening events. And step by step, the atmosphere grew warmer. Traditions started to appear. Like retro balls (with tango, selection of the queen of the ball), an attempt to revive the traditions of Kaunas from the old times. At first, they came scared like baby rats, and their perception of an evening gown ended up with “it must be Finnish and not cover the neck…” Later the décolleté and furs appeared. But the blockades started, and these balls lost their meaning…

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Or the New Year’s Eve (…). Česka Lukenskas came with a cage on his head (his entire gang with Andriuškevičius in the front were radical avant-gardists). Gintaras Stulgaitis had grey hair, a costume, and glasses. Looking so solid. So, I tell him: where is your mask? Then he takes a hat made of red child’s stockings and puts it on his head. It was the funniest mask ever. Some sort of fantastic Santa Claus. Santa Claus (no, back then it was Father Frost), spent his evening giving everyone books by Lenin, Brezhnev also letters of honour with the head of Lenin…
A year before the last, on March 8, we purchased a lot of cactuses, drove to various workshops and guys with dress suits gave them to female painters. When our colleagues from Vilnius arrived, they watched this event with jealousy: they thought that we fool around like this every day.

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Wind Brought on Train… Žilvinė Petrauskaitė.

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Nemunas, 1992, No. 5.

Contemporary art and design gallery ARTeritorija made its debut a year ago, precisely during the Kaunas Jazz Festival, introducing a project “Art, Especially Music”. The gallery is located on the ground floor of the former Kaunas City Planning Institute (Miestprojektas). The festival and the gallery became partners and shared the same ideas in order to create a democratic informal space for people’s communication and ideas to circulate. Celebrating its first anniversary, this Thursday, ARTeritorija started a two-week project ARTpropaganda, with jazz playing during its events.
Daiva Citvarienė, director of the gallery and curator of this project says that the goal is to build a bridge between art and society: “It is our wish that the circulation of the artistic life would not be confined to close spaces, and galleries would not be a taboo for the great part of people: a place, where they would never visit. This is why we chose a “café” designed specifically inside the gallery as the centre of the activities of ARTpropaganda project. This is where we host carefully tailored art projects, introduce relevant presentations, organise public discussions both in the gallery and online, and this is where jazz musicians play. (…)

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According to Citvarienė, art critic and historian, in today’s world, there are voices speaking about the crisis of art, and one can hear very controversial statements that art has freed itself from the complexes of its special purpose, established connections with other disciplines and became independent and that in the future it will disappear, just like astrology or alchemy. In this context, the function of the contemporary art became very relevant. Where is its essence? To push your limits, submerge into reality, create real events in the real social context? But will such art be effective and able to compete with the telematic industry?

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The “live” conference of ARTpropaganda has already invited and will invite for discussions, so will the online discussion available on the Omni portal. On the first day of the project, Thursday, art historian and critic Rasa Andriušytė discussed the work of art in the everyday life, architect Audrys Karalius read a report with an intriguing title “Architectons: The Machos of the Landscape”. A wide audience listened to a concert by a guest of Kaunas Jazz 2003 festival Enver İzmaylov from Ukraine.
There were two serious presentations in the conference agenda: “Art and Imagology” by Leonidas Donskis and “Contemporary Art Project Virus in Šiauliai” by Virginijus Kinčinaitis.
Today the cafe of ARTeritorija offers presentations delivered in an informal environment focusing on contemporary sculpture and local art in Vilnius. Tomorrow, on Sunday, analysis of the conditions of social architecture within the last decade will be analysed from the practical perspective, taking the capital as an example. There will also be an introduction of a book by Redas Diržys and Jonas Valatkevičius called Manipuliacija (Manipulation). Artūras Tereškinas will speak about unforgettable city territories. A special Sunday dessert: a concert by a Swiss Jazz trio Witwer Pliakas Wertmueller. (…)
The project ARTpropaganda will end on May 2, 3 and 4. It will also offer a project by VMU students, Lithuanian-Canadian performance Piligrimo Vėduoklė (Pilgrim’s Fan), videoart session by S. Pauliukas, a concert, and an evening of modern cinema in the cinema club of M. Žilinskas Art Gallery. The latter one is the only one that requires purchasing a ticket. All other ARTpropaganda events are free of charge.

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Art is Looking for the Roads to the Real Life. Rūta KANOPKAITĖ Kauno diena. 26/04/2003.