Photo reportage from the exhibition ‘Algis Skačkauskas (1955-2009). Paintings’ at National Gallery of Art, Vilnius

Algis Skačkauskas (1955-2009) entered the Lithuanian art scene in the last decade of the Soviet era, amid large-scale historical transformations. The Communist system was collapsing, the social liberation movement gained momentum, and the democratic society began to emerge in Central and Eastern Europe. Neoexpressionist tendencies were taking hold in art.

Skačkauskas’ painting oeuvre reveals a very distinctive iconography based on fantastic imagination. It has roots in a variety of sources: historical memory, literature, mythology, pagan and Christian imagery, and knowledge of classical and modern art. The fantastic plots, strange ritual actions, mysterious suggestions of signs and gestures, exoticism, various props, sexual connotations and erotic fantasies characteristic of the author’s works still electrify the viewers’ imagination, while his painting manner is mesmerising with its wild, drastic palette, mischievous stroke, and the orgy of colours.

Skačkauskas’ work is associated with the entrenchment of postmodern ideas (appropriation strategies, developed plot lines in paintings, ambivalence of meaning, elements of kitsch) and Neoexpressionist notion of artistic work in Lithuanian art at the junction of the 1980s and 1990s. In the Independence years, the artist continued his artistic strategy and remained loyal to the values of modern art – pictorial quality, beauty, and mood of the painting.

Skačkauskas’ painting exhibition at the National Gallery of Art is the first comprehensive presentation of his work after his death in 2009. At the same time, this show serves as an occasion to bring together the artist’s legacy, widely scattered across family, institutional, and private collections. It also presents the literary part of Skačkauskas’ oeuvre – the poems written by the artist.

Curator Milda Žvirblytė
Duration: 2016 10 14  – 2016 12 11

Sponsors: Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Expobalta, Exterus
Media sponsors: Lietuvos rytas, lrytas.lt
Organizer: National Gallery of Art
Partner: Modern Art Center, Vilnius