Lithuanian artist, painter, pedagogue, one of the most famous representatives of Lithuanian Neo-Expressionism.
The artist's taste for art manifested itself in his early childhood, when he began his art studies at the J. Vienožinskis Art School in Vilnius. In 1986, he graduated from the Vilnius Art Institute (now the Vilnius Academy of Arts). During his studies, he met such Lithuanian art coryphaeans as Sofija Veiverytė, Algimantas Švėgžda, Antanas Gudaitis, Augustinas Savickas, Jonas Čeponis. He still has an active creative relationship with Gintaras Palemonas Janonis.
While searching for his own style, Ričardas Bartkevičius admired and was inspired by the works of El Greco, Jacopo Tintoretto and Peter Breigel. Later he was interested in German, French and Lithuanian Expressionism. In 1982, 1984 he visited Armenia and Georgia. The colouring of medieval paintings and the tradition of primitive art in these countries found a resonance in his further work.
Since 1990 a member of the Lithuanian Artists' Union, in 1994 he initiated the formation of the artists' group "Ė", and in 1996 he became a member of the group of "Individualists".
While living in Germany in 1997 (having been awarded a scholarship by the city of Speyr), he got acquainted with the then-current trends of the German art. In 1999 he was awarded the annual prize of the Lithuanian Artists' Union and a state scholarship of the highest degree. In 2004 he was again awarded the State Scholarship of the Highest Degree.
Since 1990 he has been a lecturer and professor at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, and for a long time he was the head of the Department of Fine Arts.
