Posūkis prie istorijos? Neoekspresionizmas pertvarkos laikotarpio tapyboje

LTStraipsnyje tyrinėjamas paskutinio sovietmečio dešimtmečio Lietuvos tapybos santykis su istorija, išskiriant neoekspresionizmo reiškinį ir jam būdingą „posūkį prie istorijos". Remiantis socialinės menotyros nuostatomis ir psichoanalitine meno kūrinių interpretacija, siekiama išsiaiskinti, ką neoekpresionistinei kūrybai būdingas istorijos suvokimas ir panaudojimas reiškė kultūriniame bei sociopolitiniame to meto kontekste. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Socialinė menotyra; Psichoanalizė; Sovietmečio tapyba; Neoekspresionizmas; Istorija; Ideologija; Social history of art; Psychoanalysis; Soviet painting; History; Ideology.

ENThe article explores issues that are related to the notion of history in the discourse of Lithuanian painting of the last decade of the Soviet period. The conscious appropriation of historical forms and styles was then an important idea in the art scene; this was related to international art phenomena, primarily, to the neoexpressionism that was popular in the West. The article analyses what elements were common to the local and international tendencies in art, and what the usage of the historical style of expressionism in Lithuanian neoexpressionist painting meant within the cultural and socio-political context of the Perestroika period. The last decade of the Soviet system was framed by two opposite forms of social life: on the one hand, this period was marked by the atrophy of the significant institutes of modern society (public space, political participation, freedom of speech), social alienation and the hyperbolised ideologisation of daily life during the crisis of the Soviet system. On the other hand, the late 1980s mark the process of personal and social liberation and the beginning of new socio-economic formations in the light of the turning point in history that was then being made. In terms of the Soviet society, this was a decade of extremities during which culture was often a catalyst for radical changes. In the 1980s, the meaning of expressionism in Lithuanian painting changed: it was neither as innovative as it had been during the Thaw period nor was it a means for articulating the critical attitude towards reality that it had been during the period of stagnation. During the years of Perestroika the expressive visual language began to be treated as part of the artistic tradition and the object of reflection, i.e. as a historical category, which young painters of the time made relevant in their works.The notion of expressionism as a historical category brought Lithuanian work of the time closer to neoexpressionism in Western art. The works of Lithuanian artists were related to German and Italian neo-expressionism via their similar conception of the conscious recontextualisation of the local artistic tradition, which was aimed at maintaining historical continuity and a nationalist narrative. During Perestroika there was a tendency to think that the work of contemporary painters was characterised by the rebirth of the concept of peinture (sensitive painting, visual expression and skilful technique), which related the new work to the politically significant "Lithuanian expressionism" of the interwar period. The return to expressive language and the formalist revival of the "painterly" responded to the need to strengthen nationalist ideology, and the pursuit of "unmediated" expression acted as an ethical support for the concept of culture as a substitute for religious and political activities. The artists Algis Skačkauskas and Jonas Gasiūnas developed a unique version of neo-expressionism in the 1980s by reassessing the potential of expressionistic figuration. Skačkauskas used a form of appropriation that was characteristic of neo-expressionism: he exploited classical subjects, cultural images, and borrowed his means of expression from an already existing repertory of visual codes. His revelation of the arbitrariness and historical character of visual codes did not become, however, a de-sublimating critique of the modernist myth of authorship and the subtexts of individual style. Despite the variety of visual techniques employed, the signs of psychosomatic activity, emotional charge, artistic temperament and ability are remarkable in Skačkauskas' work.The myth of self-expression is also supported by the repetitive motif of [a] man depicted in a creative act. This act is representative of a conception of psychological creativity that sees such activity as beyond the "reality principle" or as an alternative to social and historical reality. Along with appropriation, personal mythologisation emerged as a driving force in the 1980s, especially in works by Gasiùnas. Individual mythology was expressed in his paintings through symbols of the collective and personal imagination that are coupled with a selfreferential and serial narrative which was focussed on the act of painting. The language of painting is constantly tested in the use of shaped-canvases, alteration of scale, experimentation with formats and space, and by liberating and restricting the expressive gesture. Painting is akin to the psychoanalytical process of anamnesis: it enacts a constant return to the traumatic events of the past, and through their repetition, it remakes and processes those experiences so that the painter/viewer may be liberated from what has been repressed and expelled. The expressionistic figuration in painting of the 1980s not only made the self-reflexive strategies of postmodern art relevant, but also reestablished self-expression as a metier which separated painterly practices from topical reflections of social life for a long time. Neo-expressionist ideas supported the concept of painting as peinture and the importance of national tradition in the discourse of the 1980s and endorsed the nationalist inclinations that were then consolidating within society, meanwhile preserving the a-historical status of art and culture as "eternal values". [From the publication]

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