Family

A modest outdoor sculpture can be formally categorised as decorative. Like many artists from the Kaunas School of Art, Robertas Antinis Sr (1898–1981) travelled to Paris during the interwar period, studying at the School of Decorative Arts and the Académie Julian. At that time, Parisian art was undergoing a transition from its rebellious mood to a yearning for harmony and stability, which is evident in its neo-traditionalist tendencies. Antinis’ Family bears a formal resemblance to The Kiss by the renowned Modernist sculptor Constantin Brancusi, made in 1912. Both pieces feature figures melded together in an embrace, abstracted, and simplified into monolithic forms, where individual features dissolve. However, while Brancusi’s work exudes passion, Family conveys the essence of a family born out of love. The embrace recurs like reflections in a hall of mirrors, illustrating the perpetual creation of new life from love’s embrace, a symbol of life’s continuity. Throughout his career, Antinis favoured compact, static compositions, a stylistic choice that is evident in Family. Influences from Lithuanian folk sculpture permeate his work, which is characterised by generalised silhouettes, enclosed volumes, and a sense of stillness. The motifs of motherhood, womanhood and family gained prominence in Antinis’ oeuvre from the 1950s onwards.

Text author Jurgita Ludavičienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE ART OF MATERIALS. Compiler and text author Jurgita Ludavičienė

A modest outdoor sculpture can be formally categorised as decorative. Like many artists from the Kaunas School of Art, Robertas Antinis Sr (1898–1981) travelled to Paris during the interwar period, studying at the School of Decorative Arts and the Académie Julian. At that time, Parisian art was undergoing a transition from its rebellious mood to a yearning for harmony and stability, which is evident in its neo-traditionalist tendencies. Antinis’ Family bears a formal resemblance to The Kiss by the renowned Modernist sculptor Constantin Brancusi, made in 1912. Both pieces feature figures melded together in an embrace, abstracted, and simplified into monolithic forms, where individual features dissolve. However, while Brancusi’s work exudes passion, Family conveys the essence of a family born out of love. The embrace recurs like reflections in a hall of mirrors, illustrating the perpetual creation of new life from love’s embrace, a symbol of life’s continuity. Throughout his career, Antinis favoured compact, static compositions, a stylistic choice that is evident in Family. Influences from Lithuanian folk sculpture permeate his work, which is characterised by generalised silhouettes, enclosed volumes, and a sense of stillness. The motifs of motherhood, womanhood and family gained prominence in Antinis’ oeuvre from the 1950s onwards.

Text author Jurgita Ludavičienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album THE ART OF MATERIALS. Compiler and text author Jurgita Ludavičienė