Group Exhibition of Painting

1/3Vincas Kisarauskas (left) and Valentinas Antanavičius (right) in front of Antanavičius’s works. Photo: Algimantas Kunčius (courtesy of Algimantas Kunčius).

1/3Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas (left) and Vladimiras Tarasovas (right) installing Cukermanas’s works. Photo: Algimantas Kunčius (courtesy of Algimantas Kunčius).

1/3Public presentation with the artists moderated by the art critic Alfonsas Andriuškevičius. Photo: Algimantas Kunčius (courtesy of Algimantas Kunčius).

The “Group Exhibition of Painting” was only open for a few days. A public presentation with the artists on the occasion of the exhibition at the LSSR Art Workers’ Palace was held on December 22, 1977. The event was moderated by the art critic Alfonsas Andriuškevičius (1940).

He recalls, “During a discussion of the exhibition, I simply moved from the work of one artist to the work of another, and interpreted them, giving slight hints at an evaluation. Again, I tried to show how the more innovative means of expression worked. Yet it was mostly artists who participated in the discussion, and so there did not seem to be any very skeptical reactions to these means of expression. Nevertheless, the participating painters were interested in hearing interpretations of their work, and in receiving a few critical insights, although I was by no means an authoritative figure.” Later, “during discussions of Valentinas Antanavičius’s and Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas’s exhibitions at the Conservatory [in 1981 and 1982, respectively], I mostly had to explain to the public their unconventional means [assemblage and abstract art] of expression (for us), and to prove their legitimacy and functionality. Part of the audience was clearly averse to such art. Besides, I tried to demonstrate that those means of expression produced important meanings, and I tried to counteract the idea that they were just empty, formalist games.”[1]