Vytautas Kasiulis is one of my main artist I have chosen to study and understand his artwork , technique and style to help me develop my own personal work and style for my A level Fine art Coursework.
I started off my research for Kasiulis by visiting his artwork exhibition in ‘Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum’ which is in Vilnius, Lithuania. There I got the opportunity to view his artwork from up close as well as find out about his background.
(Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania)
Biography
The artist was allegedly born on the 23rd of April 1918, although it was said there is some doubt if this is the exact date. I found that one influence that may have persuaded him to become an artist was the fact that his father was a craftsman of sculptures who later became an painter too . In 1937 Kasiulis studied decorative painting, in Kauno art school and completed his studies in 1941. In 1942 he then remained in Kauno art institution and taught as an instructor in decorative painting. In 1943 he had his first personal show in Kaunas, Vytautas Didysis Culture Museum. In 1944 due to World War 2 enforcing into Lithuania the artist decided to flee the country. In 1948 he came to Paris. The artist acquired a gallery in 1960 called ‘Galerie des Beaux Arts, Rue des Beuxs Arts, 10) and even later he acquired an even larger gallery ‘Galerie Royale’ (1964)
He died on the 12th of March in 1995 in Paris, and was buried in the De Pantin Cemetery in Paris.
His artwork consists of very specific elements, which is: virtuosic play of lines, refined vivid colours, and stylisation of forms in his own style. His style and artwork allowed to transform a ordinary scene of e.g. Paris street life motifs into something impulsive, expressive, representing his mood and in a way irony.
Whenever I had a 1st hand observation of his artwork I was actually surprised of the elements you can’t see when viewing his artwork second-hand. Firstly what I did not see before was that every painting in which he had used oil on canvas was quite smooth in texture although it was visible that the artist layered media. For instance he would apply a colour such as red, and then he would layer the colour by tinting it with white oil paint, in a quite circular motion, however it would be quite delicate and only really visible from up close.
Kasiulis used quite a variety of media, such as : oil, pastels, water colours, gouache, paper, canvas, cardboard, lithography.
What impressed me the most was that his earlier art work seemed to use more realistic colours and tones, but as I continued to walk through the gallery his work started to progress into more unrealistic bright and unusual colours, which in a way allowed me as a viever to understand how possibly his style had changed and prospered during his career. Most of his subjects were of streets, common people, musicians, dancers, circus artist,It was also mentioned in his biography that the artist particularly liked to depict scenes from his art studio.
(Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania)
Biography
The artist was allegedly born on the 23rd of April 1918, although it was said there is some doubt if this is the exact date. I found that one influence that may have persuaded him to become an artist was the fact that his father was a craftsman of sculptures who later became an painter too . In 1937 Kasiulis studied decorative painting, in Kauno art school and completed his studies in 1941. In 1942 he then remained in Kauno art institution and taught as an instructor in decorative painting. In 1943 he had his first personal show in Kaunas, Vytautas Didysis Culture Museum. In 1944 due to World War 2 enforcing into Lithuania the artist decided to flee the country. In 1948 he came to Paris. The artist acquired a gallery in 1960 called ‘Galerie des Beaux Arts, Rue des Beuxs Arts, 10) and even later he acquired an even larger gallery ‘Galerie Royale’ (1964)
He died on the 12th of March in 1995 in Paris, and was buried in the De Pantin Cemetery in Paris.
His artwork consists of very specific elements, which is: virtuosic play of lines, refined vivid colours, and stylisation of forms in his own style. His style and artwork allowed to transform a ordinary scene of e.g. Paris street life motifs into something impulsive, expressive, representing his mood and in a way irony.
Whenever I had a 1st hand observation of his artwork I was actually surprised of the elements you can’t see when viewing his artwork second-hand. Firstly what I did not see before was that every painting in which he had used oil on canvas was quite smooth in texture although it was visible that the artist layered media. For instance he would apply a colour such as red, and then he would layer the colour by tinting it with white oil paint, in a quite circular motion, however it would be quite delicate and only really visible from up close.
Kasiulis used quite a variety of media, such as : oil, pastels, water colours, gouache, paper, canvas, cardboard, lithography.
What impressed me the most was that his earlier art work seemed to use more realistic colours and tones, but as I continued to walk through the gallery his work started to progress into more unrealistic bright and unusual colours, which in a way allowed me as a viever to understand how possibly his style had changed and prospered during his career. Most of his subjects were of streets, common people, musicians, dancers, circus artist,It was also mentioned in his biography that the artist particularly liked to depict scenes from his art studio.
Here is some of his artwork created in the 1950’s
(Right side, Vytautas Kasiulis ‘Antis’ (Duck) oil on canvas, 81,5cm x 64,5cm, taken in Vytautas Kasiulis Art Muesum)
Compared to some of his artwork in the 1960’s
(Left side, Vytautas Kasiulis ‘Muzikantas su mandolina’ (Musician with a mandolin) oil on canvas and (right side) ‘Šokis’ (The Dance) oil on canvas, taken in Vytautas Kasiulis Art Muesum)
(Left side, Vytautas Kasiulis ‘Muzikantas su mandolina’ (Musician with a mandolin) oil on canvas and (right side) ‘Šokis’ (The Dance) oil on canvas, taken in Vytautas Kasiulis Art Muesum)
Another interesting aspect of his work that I noticed is that his paintings really highlight and focus on lines. At the time of painting the artist did not blend these lines, he almost left them as outlines, even whenever a painting was of a person he would only outline the person in various tones and colours but the actual colour of the person would be the same as the background e.g. Green but only by the correct use of lines could you tell what he was painting.
Here is an example;
(Vytautas Kasiulis ‘Restorane’ (In the restaurant) 1951, oil on canvas, 59cm x 73cm, taken in Vytautas Kasiulis Art Muesum)
(Vytautas Kasiulis ‘Restorane’ (In the restaurant) 1951, oil on canvas, 59cm x 73cm, taken in Vytautas Kasiulis Art Muesum)
Although Vytautas Kasiulis worked in the same kind of style, using different media made his work vary a lot, for instance whenever he used pastels and lithograph his work would be quite intense colour wise, but whenever he used oil and e.g. canvas in my opinion his artwork looks more professional and appealing to the eye. Maybe this is because I am used to working with oil paint so it seems more appealing.
Here are two examples of his artwork using pastels;
(Left side) Vytautas Kasiulis ‘Gatves scena’ (Street scene) 1950’s, pastels on paper taken (right side) ‘Dailininkas dirbtuveje’ (Artist in his studio) 1950’s, pastels on paper, taken in Vytautas Kasiulis Art Muesum)
The painting that grabbed my attention in particular that I will analyse is called 'Mulen Ružas’
(Above, Vytautas Kasiulis 'Mulen Ružas’ (Moulin Rouge) oil on canvas, 1980’s, taken in Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum)To me this painting stood out the most because unlike most of the other paintings by Kasiulis that I viewed in the gallery, this one was one of the largest. The scale surely added effect especially because the painting is already very intensely bright and lively. When looking at this painting the first impression and feelings that I get is positivity, celebration and culture. Clearly this painting is based on The Moulin Rouge which is in Paris, France. I believe Kasiulis painted this because he loved to paint streets and people, which this painting clearly represents (dancers and musicians dancing, In the streets of Paris by the Moulin Rouge) and since a big part of his life was spent in Paris this painting may have portrayed Kasiulis’s interest and fascination in the French life and culture, as he was surrounded by it everyday, hence he wanted to express to the viewers what a place like that made him feel.
For this painting Kasiulis used oil paint on canvas, he chose to use very bright colours (both primary and secondary) Although Kasiulis used quite bright colours in a lot of his work, in this painting in particular it seems like Kasiulis wanted to highlight the performances that were going on and express the joyful and positive atmosphere at the time (The Moulin Rouge which stands for ‘Red Mill’ was a cabaret opened in 1889 and was famous for the French cancan dance performed by Parisian female dancers) However it could be said that maybe the artist may have used too much bright colour in my opinion, as composition wise it is hard to find a particular subject or focus point as there is so much pattern, detail and bright colour in the painting which makes it too intense to look at. Although the wind mill in the top middle of the painting may be more of a staring point and the word ‘Moulin Rouge’ seems to grab my attention a little bit more than the rest of the details in the painting.
Whenever looking at the painting from up close, I noticed that Kasiulis most likely layered the painting in parts. It seems like he first painted the background using vertical brush stroke lines of various secondary and primary colours of different shades such as blue, red, green, yellow which he slightly blended together, and after this he painted in detail over the background paint layer in finer thinner lines and dots, using lots of different colours. In some areas the lines were more spaced out hence the background can still be visible. The painting itself is 2D, and the surface and texture is fairly smooth, round the edges where the original background is, although where there is finer detail like lines or dots layered on top of the background, the texture ans surface is slightly more bumpy.
There are many other artists who’s paintings are based on The Moulin Rouge. Bellow is a painting called ‘Le Moulin Rouge, Place Blanche a Montmartre' by a French painter Antoine Blanchard. This painting shows the street of Montmartre with the Moulin Rouge in the background. Differently to Kasiulis’s 'Mulen Ružas' this painting has clearer in depth details, with more realistic subject matters and colours. However atmosphere in this painting appears more gloomy unlike the 'Mulen Ružas' celebrational and joyful surrounding. This may be because Blanchard focused on the street as a whole as what it is on a casual day, whereas in Kasiulis's painting's it is all about the leisure and atmosphere of the Moulin Rouge at night time, which may explain why Kasiulis used unrealistic bright colours to show the feelings that this cabaret creates, whereas Blanchard tried to make it less exiting and more realistic as to what it really is.
(Antoine Blanchard ‘Le Moulin Rouge, Place Blanche a Montmartre’ 1970, oil on canvas, 33cm x 45cm (1)
Overall I think that visiting Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum has given me quite a good advantage in my understating of his work, not only now I know what sort of media he uses, and what his artwork looks from up close in detail, I got to view a collection of his artwork that I would have not seen by searching on the internet, as there is very little of his work on the web with less description provided about the work and the artist himself. Whereas now I have photographs from the museum for my own personal use towards my A2 coursework.
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