The Piper

Robertas Antinis Sr (1898–1981) studied sculpture at the Kaunas School of Art and, after receiving a state scholarship in 1928, continued his studies in Paris at the Higher National School of Decorative Arts, specialising in decorative and monumental sculpture. He returned to Lithuania in 1933 and won a gold medal at the Paris International Exposition in 1937. One of his main teachers at the Académie Julian in Paris was the sculptor Henri Bouchard, an admirer of Classical Antiquity. Mastering the tasks of French Academicism, Antinis sought formal links between the past and the present. His sculptural objects are heavyweight (regardless of their size), with curved, oval and undulating, but calm, shapes. Their rounded contours create an impression of monumental calm. A recurring motif in his work is The Piper. In 1963 he created a sculpture of a piper from chamotte, and in 1972 he carved the same sculpture from granite at a sculptors’ creative residency in Panevėžys. This granite sculpture was erected in 1974 in Respublikos Square (now January 13 Square). The Piper also has connections with Kaunas: the collection of the Kaunas Modern Art Foundation includes a terracotta sculpture The Piper, and a cement version, created in 1969 and 1970, stands near the Kaunas Artists’ House at 56 Putvinskio Street. For this work and others, Antinis was awarded the State Prize of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1969.

Text author Jurgita Ludavičienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE ART OF MATERIALS. Compiler and text author Jurgita Ludavičienė
Expositions: "Free and Unfree. Lithuanian Art between 1945 and 1990", 9 September 2021 – 30 April 2022, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curators Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė.

Robertas Antinis Sr (1898–1981) studied sculpture at the Kaunas School of Art and, after receiving a state scholarship in 1928, continued his studies in Paris at the Higher National School of Decorative Arts, specialising in decorative and monumental sculpture. He returned to Lithuania in 1933 and won a gold medal at the Paris International Exposition in 1937. One of his main teachers at the Académie Julian in Paris was the sculptor Henri Bouchard, an admirer of Classical Antiquity. Mastering the tasks of French Academicism, Antinis sought formal links between the past and the present. His sculptural objects are heavyweight (regardless of their size), with curved, oval and undulating, but calm, shapes. Their rounded contours create an impression of monumental calm. A recurring motif in his work is The Piper. In 1963 he created a sculpture of a piper from chamotte, and in 1972 he carved the same sculpture from granite at a sculptors’ creative residency in Panevėžys. This granite sculpture was erected in 1974 in Respublikos Square (now January 13 Square). The Piper also has connections with Kaunas: the collection of the Kaunas Modern Art Foundation includes a terracotta sculpture The Piper, and a cement version, created in 1969 and 1970, stands near the Kaunas Artists’ House at 56 Putvinskio Street. For this work and others, Antinis was awarded the State Prize of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1969.

Text author Jurgita Ludavičienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE ART OF MATERIALS. Compiler and text author Jurgita Ludavičienė
Expositions: "Free and Unfree. Lithuanian Art between 1945 and 1990", 9 September 2021 – 30 April 2022, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curators Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė.