Character
Portrait

Ausra (Aušra) Barzdukaite-Vaitkuniene (Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė)

Kaunas (Lithuania), 1962  

Period of activity: 1986 — Still active

Geographical classification: Europe > Lithuania

Socio-cultural movements

Late modern period / Contemporary period > Avant-garde art movements > Expressionism

Groups by dedication

Writers

Plastic, visual and performing artists > Painters

Context of feminine creation

The “wild” 1990s in Lithuania saw marked political and social changes, which provided inspiration for four young Lithuanian painters Aušra Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė and her three colleague artists Elena Balsiukaitė-Brazdžiūnienė, Aušra Andziulytė, and Judita Budriūnaitė to form the group Four Muses, which blew a fresh breath of air to the male-dominated field of painting. The works of the painters were characterized by expression, bright colors, and stories that invited discussion. One of the most important features of the Four Muses Group was that all their exhibitions were based on a certain concept. E.g., in 1996, they organized an exhibition “2.5 Liters of Air”, which took place in Kaunas Picture Gallery. This amount of air is contained in the woman's lungs, whilst the volume of the man's lungs is slightly higher. The ironic title contains manifestations of feminism – after all, the field of painting has not always been friendly to women. Compared to classical paintings, the paintings of the Four Muses were a little bolder and less academic. 

Today, the expressively conceptual Lithuanian painter Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė conveys in her work global reactions to changes in the society, its flaws. Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė's paintings provoke the audience through the joy of recognition and reading of implicit meanings.  If earlier the artist mostly drew inspiration for her work from nature, from old dilapidated rural buildings, forest sheds, or lone trees, today the melancholic moods of abstract motifs are often replaced by ironic playfulness and a more active involvement in social problems of the day.

Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė's expressionist painting is “cinematic” in terms of both content and form. It contains a mysterious mood which bespeaks the intangible phenomena of life, abstractions in them convey a certain “communication” between reality and the metaphysical world. Equally important, at times the paintings are provocative and repel through existential nausea in its broader sense, yet other times the thickness of the paintings attracts, sucks in and swallows the viewer. Indeed, one prominent feature of the “thickness” of Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė's works is integrity of reality, imagination, and fantasy, an absolute (and even psychopathological at times) fatalism. 

This is what Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė says about painting:

“Painting provides food for the eyes and exercise for the mind. […] And art allows you to avoid routine. When a person beholds, they become very sensitive and alive, able to see the forms of the world, forget themselves. And when you live forgetting your ego, you are free and alive.”

Review

Aušra Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė is a famous Lithuanian painter, writer, curator, and teacher (professor at Vilnius Academy of Arts) who constructs the layout of the landscape even in portraits. Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė works in the fields of installations and object art, participates in exhibitions, organizes projects and writes books. She has received numerous scholarships and awards in Lithuania and internationally, her designs are part of many private collections and have been acquired by the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, MO Museum, Meno Parkas Gallery, Lippes Institute of Local Lore (Germany), etc.

Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė’s paintings depict very wide geographical and chronological boundaries ranging from Lithuanian pine forests to the jungles of Tahiti, from the Baroque to Post-Impressionism. The artist’s work contains a spiritual dimension, yet also uncertainty, provocation, unconscious visions, and a torturous desire to create the effect of “envelopment” in colour. 

Activities

Justifications

  • Vaitkūnienė is an expressively conceptual and abstract Lithuanian painter, writer, curator, and teacher (professor at Vilnius Academy of Arts) who has contributed greatly to the heritage of Lithuanian art.
  • Krasner Foundation Inc. (New York, USA) scholarship for implementation of creative plans in 2013.
  • She participates in projects and exhibitions: The project NordArt, Kunstwerk Carlshutte in Budelsdorf, Germany (2013); the project Behind the White Curtain and the Lithuanian pavilion at the 54th International Art Exhibition La Biennale Di Venezia in Venice, Italy (2011); exhibitions in Chicago, Berlin, Hamburg, Budapest, Barcelona, etc.; the Lyon Biennale Satellite Exhibition Resonance in France and the Biennale Europienne d'Art Contempora in Nime, France (2012).
  • She is the author of several books: Such a Smell of Life (2009); Arūnas Vaitkūnas. Drawings (2012); A Notebook for Painters (2016); Four Stories or More (2013).
  • The artist’s designs are part of many private collections and have been acquired by the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, MO Museum, Meno Parkas Gallery, Lippes Institute of Local Lore (Germany), etc.

Biography

Aušra Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė was born in 1962 in Kaunas, Lithuania. In 1986 she graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts with a degree in painting. Since 1988 Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė has been teaching at Kaunas Faculty of Art of Vilnius Academy of Arts and has held over 80 solo and group exhibitions in Lithuania, Germany, England, France, Poland, Portugal, Austria, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, Georgia, Estonia, Iceland, South Africa, Sweden, etc. 

In 1990-1996 Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė participated in the activities of the group of female painters “Four Muses”, who were brought together by friendship, a common vision, and a similar approach to creation. 

In 1993, Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė married Arūnas Vaitkūnas, a painter of unique hearing for colours and special artistic sensitivity and had the son Tomas born in 1995. In 2005 her husband died. The last two decades, Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė has been engaged in organizing personal exhibitions and participation in group exhibitions; she also nurtures her husband’s work and seeks to transfer the artist’s work into today's context.

Awards: The Best Oeuvre of 2009 (2010); Diploma for Creative Results, Exhibition Rebirth (2006); Award for Meaningful and Memorable Works for the Kaunas City (2005); Prize for the Continuity of Expressionist Traditions (2004); The Best Oeuvre in 2002 (2003); Lithuanian State Scholarship of the Highest Degree in Culture and Art (1999-2000); Nida City Municipal Award (1997); Kaunas City Culture Department Award (1997); Vilnius City Municipal Award (1996), etc. 

 

http://www.mmcentras.lt/autoriai/ausra-barzdukaite-vaitkuniene/64

https://artnews.lt/menininkai/barzdukaite-vaitkuniene-ausra

https://m.kauno.diena.lt/naujienos/kaunas/menas-ir-pramogos/keturios-desimtojo-desimtmecio-kauno-muzos-apie-meno-ypatumus-ir-virsmus-975116

http://www.menoparkas.lt/36795/publishing.html

http://www.mmcentras.lt/autoriai/ausra-barzdukaite-vaitkuniene/64 https://kauno.diena.lt/dienrastis/menas-ir-pramogos/spalvu-alchemikes-a-barzdukaites-vaitkunienes-tapybos-magija-355843

https://kauno.diena.lt/naujienos/laisvalaikis-ir-kultura/kultura/naujai-pazinti-vaitkuna-1076703 

https://kamane.lt/Kurejai/Personalijos/Ausra-Barzdukaite-Vaitkuniene-dailininke 

Works

http://www.mmcentras.lt/autoriai/ausra-barzdukaite-vaitkuniene/64

https://kamane.lt/Kurejai/Personalijos/Ausra-Barzdukaite-Vaitkuniene-dailininke

Paintings:

Stories Unwrapped, 2003

A Flooded Basement and a Rabbit Shadow, 2003

Daydreams, 2009

Carousels at the Sea, 2010

Exuviae, 2010

Desperado, 2011

The Story of a Dirty Birch, 2012

About Things and Clouds, 2013

4 Stories, 2013

Old Toys, 2013

Fun in the Birch Grove, 2017

A Ghost Kiosk, 2017

Wicket in Arborvitae, 2017

That Painfully Sweet Autumn Sky, 2018

Two Lights, 2019

Whispers, 2019

The Yellow House. Memories, 2019

Inflatable Art Museum, 2020, etc.

Bibliography

Andriušytė, R. (2000). Alchemija ir dvasingumas Aušros Barzdukaitės tapyboje. Kultūros barai, 1. 

Civinskienė, K. (2011).  Spalvų alchemikės A. Barzdukaitės-Vaitkūnienės tapybos magija. [accessed on 15-01-2022]

https://kauno.diena.lt/dienrastis/menas-ir-pramogos/spalvu-alchemikes-a-barzdukaites-vaitkunienes-tapybos-magija-355843

MO muziejus. Aušra Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė. [accessed on 15-01-2022]

http://www.mmcentras.lt/autoriai/ausra-barzdukaite-vaitkuniene/64

Šapoka, K. (2013). Pragariškas ir fatališkas buities tirštis: Aušros Barzdukaitės-Vaitkūnienės tapyba. Kultūros barai, 1, 47-49.

Didactic approach

Art (painting).

Documents