Still-life with fruit, a bottle and a bookcase

There is a precise date on the back of this picture: 20 January 1959. By that time, Augustinas Savickas (1919–2012) had already become famous as an innovator in Lithuanian painting. By its monumental form and the abundance of the objects depicted, this still-life reminds us a little of pictures representing the myth of Stalinist wealth, but the very style of painting and the objects, a green glass bottle, apples and some smaller fruit, encourage us to look for reverberations of French modernism, primarily, of course, in the work of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906). Savickas painted the still-life at home or in his studio, and must therefore have portrayed the books lined up on the shelves intentionally as signs of the world of the intellectual. He was an artist and a writer, who in the second half of his life published criticism, articles on the history of art, and memoirs.

Text author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album OBJECTS ON SHOW (2017). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė
© LATGA, Vilnius 2024

There is a precise date on the back of this picture: 20 January 1959. By that time, Augustinas Savickas (1919–2012) had already become famous as an innovator in Lithuanian painting. By its monumental form and the abundance of the objects depicted, this still-life reminds us a little of pictures representing the myth of Stalinist wealth, but the very style of painting and the objects, a green glass bottle, apples and some smaller fruit, encourage us to look for reverberations of French modernism, primarily, of course, in the work of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906). Savickas painted the still-life at home or in his studio, and must therefore have portrayed the books lined up on the shelves intentionally as signs of the world of the intellectual. He was an artist and a writer, who in the second half of his life published criticism, articles on the history of art, and memoirs.

Text author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album OBJECTS ON SHOW (2017). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė
© LATGA, Vilnius 2024