Woman with the Artist

Vytautas Kasiulis is one of the few Lithuanian artists to earn international recognition. In 1937 to 1941 he studied and later taught at the Kaunas School of Arts. In 1944 he left for Austria and Germany to refine his skills. He taught at the Freiburg School of Arts and Crafts. Having arrived in Paris in 1948 he settled there for a long time. From 1949 he exhibited his works in the prestigious Parisian galleries and since 1954 in the largest European and North American cities as well. The artistic manner of Vytautas Kasiulis’ works was formed in Paris. Masterly brushstroke, exquisite harmony of colours, glowing colouring, and relaxed styling of forms are its main characteristics. In his artworks the artist turned ordinary everyday lives into strange spectacle, balancing between fantasy and reality. One of the most beautiful works of Vytautas Kasiulis, painted while he was teaching in Freiburg, Germany, is the painting "Woman with the Artist". This canvas highlights the key features of the artist's stylistic changes, which in the long run became as if his artistic program: decorativeness, disappearance of perspective, sleekness of the contours of things and objects, softness of the brushstroke, fondness for bright, warm, resonant colours and an inclination to aesthetise the depicted objects. The topic of a woman in Vytautas Kasiulis' works was one of the most delicate topics that accompanied him throughout all his creative life.