Apie žaidimą likimais: Valentinas Antanavičius „Žaisliukas" (1975): Dailininkų sąjungos fondas. (Lithuanian)
In: Daile, 2022-07-01, Heft 89, S. 29-32
serialPeriodical
Zugriff:
Valentinas Antanavičius (b. 1936) is a well-known Lithuanian painter, creator of assemblages and theatre sets, and member of the group of artists 241. Art critics who have studied Antanavičius' work note that he is considered to be probably the most consistent non-conformist of his generation. Antanavičius drew inspiration for his work from classical 20th-century modernism, such as Expressionism, Surrealism, Dadaism, and Pop Art, and his works are characterized by hints of ethnographic motifs. The deformed, frightening figures, hybrids of mythological creatures and mechanical parts, sometimes acquiring anthropomorphic features, seen in Antanavičius' canvases and cardboards, are characteristic of post-Cubist expression - the identity of the objectified body parts and pictorial forms, and the expressiveness of gesture. Sociopolitical critique is one of the most striking features of the artist's work, permeating both the content and form of the paintings and assemblages he creates. Let's take a closer look at the artist's Toy (paper, watercolor, 1975), belonging to the Artists' Association Foundation. The foreground is filled with the figure of a gigantic anthropomorphic teetotum, slightly off the central axis of the composition. The deformed body of the man-toy consists of a tip gliding across the surface of the lake with an inverted conical torso, topped by a disproportionately large head, mounted on a sturdy neck, with caricature ears, as if they were radio-locators, picking up information from the environment. The expression of the figure, in shades of dark blue, green, and purple, is one of emotionless, submissive surprise, represented by the gently open mouth of the top spinner and the raised eyebrows. The figure's face is divided like a cross by a sketched line that separates the figure's low forehead from the rest of the face, and the nose motif slides down to the chin, thus revealing the dynamics of the top spinner's movement. The skeleton and esophagus shine through the "skin" of this nameless watercolor body in thick brushstrokes, but the symmetrical face remains flat, with a slight change in luminosity evidenced by the left side of the face, which is of a duller green hue. The figure above a low horizon with hills and a two-domed church in the distance is surrounded by a bloody burning sky, the thickness of which the artist conveys by layering vertical and horizontal brushstrokes of reds, oranges, and yellows. The sense of the top spinner's independence from his surroundings is reinforced by the black outlines of the figure, typical of expressionist painting. The metaphor of the man-toy spinning wildly in a fiery landscape is particularly relevant in the context of Russia's current war in Ukraine. By painting a work that is imbued with criticism of socialism, Antanavičius seems to have picked up on the imperial ambitions that Russia had nurtured for centuries, dehumanizing the individual and turning them into an inertly spinning cog of the system. According to contemporary Russian artist Kirill Savchenkov, who together with Alexandra Sukhareva was to represent the country at this year's Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art2, "Putin is a 'state of a medium.' This state of the medium is more than the specific tyrant after whom it is named... It is multifaceted and encompassing. It is institutions and laws, oligarchs and ordinary people, the very history of oppression and fear, without which it is hard to imagine Russia [...]. One of Russia's problems that the Putin regime exploits is the lack of love for life, the worthlessness of individual life. A tragic, broken worldview welcomed the war as a confirmation of what it had sensed. It came as a fulfillment of a tragedy that many intellectuals, consciously or subconsciously, expected. The state of helplessness is one of the conditions and consequences of this." It is in this context of helplessness that Antanavičius' Toy has been swinging without changing its trajectory for several decades now, seemingly carving another groove of criticism of ideological oppression and moral inferiority in the history of the painting with each turn around the sun. Yet how should we perceive the church towers that loom in the distance? Is it a promise of disinterested hope and counterbalance, or are the towers, which are almost symmetrical to the axis of the toy, rotating in the same direction? There is probably no single answer to this question, but the power of the work in question to remain relevant against the backdrop of the passing of time and the changing socio-political climate reminds us of one thing: all too often, we do not rely on our own ability to think critically, and we become cogs in the larger political, informational, and social game. At the same time, Antanavičius' work can be seen precisely as the ability to remain morally honest even in the face of years of crushing oppression. There is no moral basis for starting a war, so a posture of non-conformism is what we will value most when we look at 2022 from the perspective of historical time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Titel: |
Apie žaidimą likimais: Valentinas Antanavičius „Žaisliukas" (1975): Dailininkų sąjungos fondas. (Lithuanian)
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Vengrytė, Alberta |
Zeitschrift: | Daile, 2022-07-01, Heft 89, S. 29-32 |
Veröffentlichung: | 2022 |
Medientyp: | serialPeriodical |
ISSN: | 0130-6626 (print) |
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