Vincas Kisarauskas. Pasvirimas į ateitį

• Grigoravičienė, Erika, sudarymas [com]
• Kisarauskaitė, Aistė, sudarymas [com]

LTVincas Kisarauskas (1934-1988) šiandien pagrįstai laikomas pažangiausiu sovietmečio Lietuvos dailininku, radikalios (post)modernizmo krypties atstovu, nepaprastai talentingu kūrėju, išradusiu galingas, sunkiam metui atsparias jo išraiškos formas, drąsiais eksperimentais įkvėpusiu ne vien savo kartos kolegas. Ne mažiau svarbi ir antroji jo - švietėjo, kultūrininko - misija, įvairiapusė veikla, lyg sūkurys įtraukusi daugelį jo aplinkos žmonių. Kisarauskas rašė dailės ir fotografijos kritikos straipsnius, išsamioje monografijoje apibendrino ilgus metus trukusius knygos ženklų tyrimus, siuntė savo ir kolegų mažosios grafikos darbus į parodas už geležinės uždangos, Vakarų šalyse. Visatai rodo netik platų jo interesų ratą, bet ir iš itin archajiško kaimo kilusio žmogaus fenomenalų gebėjimą tobulėti, susirasti tinkamus įvairių sričių mokytojus, po trupinį rinkti žinias ir tapti intelektualiu menininku - filosofu, tyrėju ir kartu dailės kalbos novatoriumi. [Iš Įvado]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Kisarauskas Vincas; Tapyba; Grafika; Dailės kritika. Keywords: Kisarauskas Vincas; Painting; Graphics art; Art criticism.Reikšminiai žodžiai: Vincas Kisarauskas; Dailininkai; Tapytojai; Grafikai; Vincas Kisarauskas; Artists; Painters.

ENToday, Vincas Kisarauskas (1934-1988) is rightly considered to be the most accomplished artist of Soviet-period Lithuania. Exceptionally talented, he adhered to the radical (post)modernist trend, while his bold experiments have inspired artists far beyond his own generation. His other mission, as a promoter of culture, is no less significant. Kisarauskas wrote articles on art and photography. He summed up his long years of research on book provenance markings in a comprehensive monograph. And he submitted small-scale graphic works by him and his colleagues to exhibitions in Western countries. These initiatives and activities not only give an idea of the wide range of his interests, they also reveal the phenomenal ability of a man who came from a very simple rural background, accumulated many small grains of knowledge, and became an intellectual artist: a philosopher, researcher and innovator of artistic language all in one. After being seen together with other students at the famous All Souls' Day demonstration in 1956, Kisarauskas remained under observation by the KGB all his life. Soviet-period documents state that his work did not fit the official mould, it was anti-Soviet, orto use the contemporary phraseology, formalist. Even just rumours about the existence of this branch of art changed the official art scene for the better. Kisarauskas' legacy is large and varied. He turned his hand to almost every kind of form and technique, and even invented new ones. He made prints and paintings, linocuts and cardboard cuts, engravings, monotypes, assemblages with various disintegrated mechanisms, parts of tools, collages with scraps of photographs, miniature paintings-objects, artist's books, sketchbooks and stage sets. He also took photographs, and worked as a scenographer and production designer.His series of paintings and prints, such as Brutal, Theatrical, Golden, Figures in Figures, Anxiety, Humans and Fate, The Sense of Time, and numerous others, elaborate mainly on aesthetic subjects. The philosophical and ethical ideas in his works are embodied in protagonists like Oedipus, Antigone, Icarus, the Prodigal Son and Christ. He brought them into his work time and time again. Sometimes he also joined their ranks, through his self-portraits. Two ideas, time and fate, seem to have preoccupied him most. Not only the protagonists of Sophocles' tragedies appear in his work in visual form, but also all kinds of modalities oftime, from an hourto an epoch, from the postwar period orthe20th century, till Thursday noon, oran hour before nightfall, as well as different turns of fate. They are forms of thought that are not strictly isolated from the everyday world that we perceive with our senses. The artist's legacy makes us revisit the relationship between art and reality, tradition and innovation, aesthetics and politics, the present day and Soviet times. Leaning figures, which are especially numerous in the later works by Kisarauskas, look out at us, recalling the past and warning of the future. The artist talks to us from the past, but at the same time, he seems to make his observations from a vast temporal distance. The stories he crafted are not easy to understand: they take considerable knowledge, effort, and a readiness to be open to oneself. Quite a few threats appear in his work, like surveillance, monitoring, the fear ofwar, psychological tensions, cruelty, and violence against human beings, and they continue to exist as threats today. However, alongside the heroic stories, we can find him telling stories of human passion, of simple and familiar longing, of disappointment and forgiveness. Quite a few of those are included in this book.Several pieces reproduced in the book are held in museums and archives in Lithuania. Some of them are quite recent acquisitions by the Modern Art Centre, acquired with private funds; but most of his legacy belongs to his family. The exhibitions of Kisarauskas' work that were held after 1990 in independent Lithuania, at the initiative of his family, are evidence of the fact that a substantial part of his work consists of unofficial items that never left his studio in Soviet times. They seem to be addressed to us, to people today. Therefore, the compilers ofthis book, his daughter Aistė Kisarauskaitė, an artist and writer, and the art researcher Erika Grigoravičienė, came up with the idea of offering critics and philosophers an opportunity to engage in a new discourse with these visible forms of thought. [From the publication]