Bokšto St

Series Vilnius, 1978–1993.

Repšys began work on the Vilnius series in 1978, but most of the pictures were made between 1987 and 1993, when dramatic political changes were taking place in Lithuania: breaking off from the Soviet Union and the restoration of independence. Repšys watched and participated in these events, and his emotion is reflected in the etchings. A picture of Bokšto St is accompanied by an inscription, in which are intertwined a message about the return to his home town by the Polish poet Czesław Miłosz, the artist’s concern about a vote on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Lithuania, and his witty doubts about the quality of the engraving: ‘Bokšto St on 7 June 1992. A very hot day, it is said a hole has opened in the sky. You could go crazy. / Petras Repšys / How can I put right what I have ruined / Czesław Miłosz has come to Vilnius, today he had his photograph taken by the Mickiewicz monument / the 14 June vote on the withdrawal of troops / we are on tenterhooks / very big letters, I should have written in smaller script, it would have been better / the communists are very alert, hell seems to have started [...] whirled away in his own car / I shouldn’t have written here, it looks as if I’ve ruined it.

Series Vilnius, 1978–1993.

Repšys began work on the Vilnius series in 1978, but most of the pictures were made between 1987 and 1993, when dramatic political changes were taking place in Lithuania: breaking off from the Soviet Union and the restoration of independence. Repšys watched and participated in these events, and his emotion is reflected in the etchings. A picture of Bokšto St is accompanied by an inscription, in which are intertwined a message about the return to his home town by the Polish poet Czesław Miłosz, the artist’s concern about a vote on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Lithuania, and his witty doubts about the quality of the engraving: ‘Bokšto St on 7 June 1992. A very hot day, it is said a hole has opened in the sky. You could go crazy. / Petras Repšys / How can I put right what I have ruined / Czesław Miłosz has come to Vilnius, today he had his photograph taken by the Mickiewicz monument / the 14 June vote on the withdrawal of troops / we are on tenterhooks / very big letters, I should have written in smaller script, it would have been better / the communists are very alert, hell seems to have started [...] whirled away in his own car / I shouldn’t have written here, it looks as if I’ve ruined it.