"Death of a Clown", 1991, oil on canvas, 150x120 cm
Collection of the Vatican Museum, Rome
Painting
I am frequently asked whether I paint on canvas. It means that special
attention is paid to easel painting. Visiting museums in various
countries I have noticed that oil and acrylic painting is exhibited in
prominent places. In the course of my monotonous painting studies I was
a free artist. I explored different means of expression. My attempts
were not very popular, but thank God nobody interfered. Only once a
lecturer remarked under his breath: "it smells of surrealism". During
the studies we painted still lifes, models, nudes, compositions on a
given subject. The process of realizing one project was quite long,
after several session the picture was loosing its initial freshness. It
was becoming "overdone". This is how we, the students, called such
works. In order not to "overdo", I would paint several pictures at the
same time. It was the same in the case of my diploma project, when I
produced two quite distant paintings: "My Studio" and "Death". After
graduation I made my debut at the national "Portrait" exhibition in
Vilnius, in 1974. According to critics, my debut was very promising. The
canvases were displayed among those by recognized Lithuanian painters.
It was both my debut and farewell.
