By the cemetery wall

This is one of the earliest works by Kasiulis. By that time, he had already won several grand prix for his posters, stained glass and paintings. The picture has a subtle dark and grey colouring which recalls Classical art. The style of painting is expressive, with clear brushstrokes, revealing the artistic approach of the 20th century. The painter managed to express with minimum colouring the dramatic mood, the bitter cold, and the closeness of people at a difficult time.

Text author Nijolė Tumėnienė

Vytautas Kasiulis (1918–1995) was hailed as a rising star in Lithuanian art during the Second World War. Having studied decorative painting in 1941 at the Kaunas Institute of Applied and Decorative Art under Stasys Ušinskas, he participated in exhibitions and soon gained admirers and started to win awards. His composition Pieta (also known as The grief of the Mother of God), which was shown in a group art exhibition in Kaunas in 1942, won the prize of the Spaudos žodis company ( J.M-tis, ‘Awarded Artists’, Naujoji sodyba, 1942, No 6, p. 314). In 1943 at the age of 25, he held the first solo exhibition in the Vytautas the Great Museum of Culture, and was praised in press reviews for reviving genre painting, which had not been popular in the interwar period, and for his satirical compositions which appealed to lovers of salon painting, and also because his pictures resembled works from earlier eras. Dark colours, a dramatic mood, and grotesque and marginal characters are characteristic features of Kasiulis’ wartime works. He left for Vienna in 1944 to continue his studies, and never returned to Lithuania.

Text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE WORLD OF LANDSCAPES II (2013). Compiler and author Nijolė Tumėnienė, KAUNAS–VILNIUS / 1918–1945 (2021). Compilers and text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė
Expositions: “Paris by Vytautas Kasiulis”, 28 June – 22 September 2013, Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum, Vilnius

This is one of the earliest works by Kasiulis. By that time, he had already won several grand prix for his posters, stained glass and paintings. The picture has a subtle dark and grey colouring which recalls Classical art. The style of painting is expressive, with clear brushstrokes, revealing the artistic approach of the 20th century. The painter managed to express with minimum colouring the dramatic mood, the bitter cold, and the closeness of people at a difficult time.

Text author Nijolė Tumėnienė

Vytautas Kasiulis (1918–1995) was hailed as a rising star in Lithuanian art during the Second World War. Having studied decorative painting in 1941 at the Kaunas Institute of Applied and Decorative Art under Stasys Ušinskas, he participated in exhibitions and soon gained admirers and started to win awards. His composition Pieta (also known as The grief of the Mother of God), which was shown in a group art exhibition in Kaunas in 1942, won the prize of the Spaudos žodis company ( J.M-tis, ‘Awarded Artists’, Naujoji sodyba, 1942, No 6, p. 314). In 1943 at the age of 25, he held the first solo exhibition in the Vytautas the Great Museum of Culture, and was praised in press reviews for reviving genre painting, which had not been popular in the interwar period, and for his satirical compositions which appealed to lovers of salon painting, and also because his pictures resembled works from earlier eras. Dark colours, a dramatic mood, and grotesque and marginal characters are characteristic features of Kasiulis’ wartime works. He left for Vienna in 1944 to continue his studies, and never returned to Lithuania.

Text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE WORLD OF LANDSCAPES II (2013). Compiler and author Nijolė Tumėnienė, KAUNAS–VILNIUS / 1918–1945 (2021). Compilers and text authors Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė
Expositions: “Paris by Vytautas Kasiulis”, 28 June – 22 September 2013, Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum, Vilnius