The artist Vytautas Kasiulis (1918–1995) is one of the few Lithuanian artists who have achieved recognition and appreciation in the world art scene. The Paris and New York museums of modern art, art galleries and collectors in France, the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Argentina, Australia and other countries still preserve the works of this artist, deservedly called by art critics one of the most interesting painters of the Parisian school of the second half of the 20th century. The influence of French culture undoubtedly influenced the development of V. Kasiulis's work, but he arrived in his dream city of Paris as an already mature artist with considerable experience, a baggage of organized exhibitions and created works. From the very beginning of his creative path, the artist was distinguished by special talents, diligence and energy. Born in Simne, in the family of the painter and decorator Matas Kasiulis, he demonstrated extraordinary drawing skills from childhood. In 1937, he entered the Kaunas Art School and graduated in 1941 (at that time, this school was called the Kaunas Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts). During his studies, he won several awards for his painting compositions and posters in various competitions. V. Kasiulis' diploma work on the theme of theater was recognized as the best in the entire history of the school ("Before the General Rehearsal", cat. no. 7). Having just graduated, he was invited to teach at the institute and worked there until 1944. From 1942, he participated in joint exhibitions of artists, and in 1943, he organized his first personal exhibition at the Vytautas Magnus Museum of Culture, surprising the public with the abundance of paintings and drawings and the variety of genres. The works shown at the exhibition attracted the audience with bright, interesting, humorous plots, strong realistic drawing and psychologically accurate characterization types. The works “Firewood. (Self-portrait)” (cat. no. 2), “At the Artist” (cat. no. 3), “Irgi mat kritikai!” (cat. no. 4), “Keliaujantis muzikantas” (cat. no. 8) – are identified with the works demonstrated at the exhibition. The dark color scheme and light-change effects, reminiscent of the works of masters of old eras, further emphasized the neotraditionalist character of V. Kasiulis’ works. Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas, Juozas Keliuotis, and Vytautas Kairiūkštis, who wrote about this exhibition, unanimously saw the creative potential of V. Kasiulis and the originality of his works in the context of art of that time. 1944 The fate of the artist, who had gone to Austria and Germany to improve his skills, was determined by the end of the war, when it became impossible to return to Lithuania. In 1946, after the establishment of the School of Arts and Crafts in Freiburg, V. Kasiulis taught there together with other artists who had left Lithuania. Here he painted intensively, participated in exhibitions of Lithuanian artists, and held several personal exhibitions in Kiel, Bad Siegelberg, Hamburg, and Freiburg. The style of the artist's works is clearly changing - the color scheme brightens and becomes transparent, space merges into decorative planes, perspective disappears, and the forms of objects and figures are composed according to the principle of ornament. In the works painted during the Freiburg period, “Self-portrait” (cat. no. 25), “Woman at the Artist's” (cat. no. 26), the impressionistic freshness of color and soft modeling of form, and the melting contours mark the beginning of a new stylistic transformation. A new, challenging stage in the artist’s life began in Paris, where he arrived in 1948. After World War II, Paris remained an indisputable international art center, attracting artists from all over the world. Even before the war, a large number of Lithuanian artists – painters, musicians, poets, and writers – drew knowledge, inspiration, and new artistic ideas from the French capital. The artists of the “Ars” group, Adomas Galdikas, Antanas Gudaitis, Viktoras Vizgirda, Juozas Mikėnas, V. K. Jonynas, and others, after studying and testing their mettle in Paris, had already demonstrated the possibilities and new forms of modern art to Lithuanian society in the 1930s. V. Kasiulis did not go unnoticed by the new trends in Lithuanian art, which he viewed as “revolutionary” and “reviving” ideas, indicating new paths of artistic creation. As a creator of an extremely receptive artistic nature, having entered the city of his dreams, Paris, the artist was not a newcomer, thrown into a new cultural environment. He had become acquainted with the influence of the Parisian school back in Lithuania, and felt its impact while creating and communicating with colleagues in Freiburg. Therefore, in the diverse life of the artistic metropolis, the artist was not afraid of feverish competition and, changing his painting manner and the nature of his work, he merged into the Parisian art community as an equal and creator of a unique style.
Despite difficult conditions and deprivation, V. Kasiulis worked hard and persistently, painted pictures, poured watercolors, and drew in pastel technique. The artist was soon noticed by collectors and gallery owners - in 1949, the first exhibition in Paris was held at the Raymond Duncan Gallery, in 1950, an exhibition took place at the Christian-Gilbert Stiebel Gallery, which began the period of V. Kasiulis' success and recognition. Every year he held exhibitions in Paris, and from 1954, he exhibited his works in Berlin, New York, Cleveland, Toronto, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Geneva, and other cities of Europe and North America. In 1960, V. Kasiulis acquired his own art gallery, where, in addition to his own paintings, he also exhibited works by famous representatives of the Paris School. A little later, the artist acquired a larger gallery in the very center of Paris, with the noble name "Galerie Royale", in which, largely thanks to the artist's energetic wife Bronė Kasiulienė, active exhibition and commercial activities took place until 1990. While living in Paris, V. Kasiulis' characteristic stylistic manner of creation was formed, characterized by a virtuoso play of lines, a coloring sparkling with refined color harmonies, and a light and playful stylization of forms. The artist continued to improve the unique method of form painting discovered in his youth, when the image in its structure resembles a negative, emerging from a darker background with flashes of light strokes. For the compositions of his canvases, pastels or lithograph sheets, he chose well-known motifs of Parisian street life: musicians and dancers, circus artists, book or flower markets, as well as scenes from the artist's workshop and cafes. In the paintings “Booksellers by the Seine in Paris” (cat. no. 106), “Painter and Model” (cat. no. 84), “Birthday”, “Violinist in the Street” (cat. no. 57), “Flower Market” (cat. no. 107) and many other works, playful improvisation, spontaneous painting, fireworks of colors and lines, and a gently ironic approach transform scenes of ordinary life into a strange spectacle, balancing between reality and fantasy. The artist’s graphic works are no less expressive, in which figurative compositions with dancing and musical characters, landscapes, genre or biblical motifs shine like stained glass windows by medieval masters (cat. nos. 121, 127, 129, 133). Even ugly or sad things – street vagrants (cat. no. 41, 58) or dead birds in still lifes (cat. no. 66, 67, 68) are depicted so expressively and colorfully that they involuntarily evoke aesthetic experiences. V. Kasiulis’ artistic worldview is in many ways close to the poetry of another Lithuanian emigrant creator, the avant-garde poet Henrikas Radauskas (it is no coincidence that V. Kasiulis illustrated the poet’s collection of poems “Arrow in the Sky”). The strength of temperament, the ironic, paradoxical vision of the world, the transformation of any object of reality into a true artistic value – all this reflects the specific feature of the worldview of the creator of modern times, where sadness and joy, irony and grotesque, fantasy and reality exist side by side and become instruments with which the world is recreated in a work of art. Many who have written about V. Kasiulis's work have compared him to Raoul Duffy, Georg Rouault, Marc Chagall and other famous painters of the Parisian school, emphasizing his individuality and the authenticity of his talent. The constellation of famous names mentioned in the context of V. Kasiulis's work is not surprising, since only the artist's extraordinary drive and perseverance - without any external encouragement or patronage - determined his recognition and success. V. Kasiulis's creative legacy has spread to museums, galleries and private collectors' collections around the world. According to the artist's wife Bronė Kasiulienė, V. Kasiulis has created about 2,700 works: oil paintings, pastels, gouache, watercolors, and lithographs. In preparing the retrospective exhibition of V. Kasiulis's work, the Lithuanian Art Museum has collected about 150 works from museums, galleries, churches and private collections. A large collection of V. Kasiulis' paintings, documentary photographs and exhibition catalogues were presented for the exhibition by B. Kasiulienė, who preserves the artist's legacy left in Paris with great love and care. The exhibition, which covers all periods of the artist's creative quest, provides the Lithuanian public with a unique opportunity to get to know the world of art of a talented Lithuanian, a creator of a unique style. The text was prepared on 2010-02-18 based on the text by Laima Bialopetravičienė "A Walk Through the Gardens of Paradise of Vytautas Kasiulis"
