The Neris riverside

Algirdas Petrulis (1915–2010) studied at Kaunas School of Art before the Second World War under Justinas Vienožinskis, and in the 1960s he was part of the revival of Lithuanian painting. In 1967, he painted the picture The Neris riverside, a subject similar to The new town by Katinas, depicting the riverside and the new areas of the city. But Petrulis went further along the path of abstraction, and turned the buildings, the river, the forest, the hills and the sky into a decorative composition of geometric shapes, squares, triangles, trapeziums and semi-circles. He did not pit nature against the city and its man-made buildings. In his picture, these opposites combine harmoniously and peacefully into an integral pictorial fabric. Petrulis was an expert colourist: his intimate picture has an enchantingly narrow but rich scale of tones, in grey, azure and russet, while the colourful brushstrokes on the grey background give the surface depth and a flickering sensation. This townscape, infused with a lyrical and gentle spirit, also expresses the artist’s nature.

Algirdas Petrulis (1915–2010) studied at Kaunas School of Art before