Decanter and glass

With its ascetic simplicity and dark colouring, this still-life by Šarūnas Sauka (b. 1958) recalls the Spanish bodegón, although it has clearly not come into being through the Christian contemplation of God and His creation, but more by earthly thoughts and experiences. Since much of Sauka’s and his contemporary artists’ life and work are affected by Lithuania’s Soviet experience, which made them look for various forms of defiance, it is indeed doubtful whether the decanter and the glass contain water. According to the artist and writer Mikalojus Povilas Vilutis (b. 1944), in those years which were so unfavourable to the expression of individuality, vodka helped many artists to survive and explore their talent, but it ruined quite a number of them too. This clear but dangerous liquid enabled artists to express the essence and the meaning of the world, and the fragility and transience of the moment. Sauka’s still-life refers to that valuable source which provided artists with their inspiration, and without which it would be difficult to understand the daily life and the art of the late Soviet period.

Text author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

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

With its ascetic simplicity and dark colouring, this still-life by Šarūnas Sauka (b. 1958) recalls the Spanish bodegón, although it has clearly not come into being through the Christian contemplation of God and His creation, but more by earthly thoughts and experiences. Since much of Sauka’s and his contemporary artists’ life and work are affected by Lithuania’s Soviet experience, which made them look for various forms of defiance, it is indeed doubtful whether the decanter and the glass contain water. According to the artist and writer Mikalojus Povilas Vilutis (b. 1944), in those years which were so unfavourable to the expression of individuality, vodka helped many artists to survive and explore their talent, but it ruined quite a number of them too. This clear but dangerous liquid enabled artists to express the essence and the meaning of the world, and the fragility and transience of the moment. Sauka’s still-life refers to that valuable source which provided artists with their inspiration, and without which it would be difficult to understand the daily life and the art of the late Soviet period.

Text author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

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