Sculpture No 4

Between 1986 and 1988, Vladas Urbanavičius (b. 1951) cast 12 bronze sculptures at his parents’ homestead at Pašiaušė. Without giving them specific titles, he numbered each one, and they all featured in the artist’s inaugural solo exhibition at the LSSR Art Workers’ Palace in Vilnius. Remarkably, with the exception of one piece entitled Leaf, all the sculptures were abstract, a characteristic that left a profound impression on both the public and art critics at the time. The pristine, unadorned sculptures, devoid of any direct associations with tangible objects, caught the attention of Alfonsas Andriuškevičius, the best-known art critic of the time. His review ‘The Quiet Life of Entities’ resonated throughout the cultural community, with his apt naming of the sculptures as ‘entities’, and his assessment of Urbanavičius’ work lending credence to the artist’s exceptional status. These sculptures were shown in Urbanavičius’ inaugural solo exhibition at the Art Workers’ Palace of the LSSR in Vilnius in 1988, as well as in ‘Human Signs’, one of the era’s pioneering conceptual exhibitions, held at the Klaipėda Exhibition Hall in the same year.

Text author Jurgita Ludavičienė

Between 1986 and 1988, Vladas Urbanavičius (b. 1951) cast 12