Nijolė Valadkevičiūtė, Untitled

Nijolė Valadkevičiūtė (1944-2020)
Untitled
Late 20th century, card, mixed media, 50 × 80
Sign. KP: acknowledgement of authorship

POP SURREALIST NIJOLĖ VALADKEVIČIŪTĖ (1944-2020)

Nijolė Valadkevičiūtė (1944-2020) was an experimental animator, graphic artist and painter. Her work is often described as having elements of pop art or even kitsch, with echoes of the aesthetics of the marginal movements of the late twentieth century or the aesthetics of so-called Pop Surrealism. Valadkevičiūtė's experimental animated films, unlike her graphic works or her not-so-abundant collection of paintings, often find their way into contemporary art exhibitions.
From 1963 to 1970 she studied graphic arts at the Art Institute. Her graphic work was internationally acclaimed, with a 2nd degree diploma at one of the most important events for graphic art in the second half of the 20th century, the 4th Tallinn Graphic Art Triennial (1974). She exhibited her graphic works at international events, and later showed her animated films at international events and festivals.
In her diploma work "Tree" (1983), for which the music was composed by the music innovator, composer Mindaugas Urbaitis, the link with the folk art tradition is more pronounced than in the cycle of engravings "Lithuanian Folk Song Motifs", created as early as 1972. As art critic Raminta Jurėnaitė has remarked, "there was nothing Lithuanian" in these graphic works. They revealed the artist's expressive, experimental style, and her bold compositional approach and unexpected images (a clumsy figure in a striped garment reminiscent of the famous primitivist Henri Rousseau's work "The Sleeping Gypsy", 1898) distinguished her works among the rest.
From 1978 to 1983, she studied animation directing at the Moscow Higher Course for Screenwriters and Directors. She made several animated films in various formats.
The animated films show a dynamic, object-laden environment. The films' plots are inconsistent, but absorbing in their unvarnished aesthetics and abundance of associations. It varies between philosophical, natural, historical, social and ethical themes. They include short stories about heroes, the name of Lithuania, President Antanas Smetona, and even reflections on her own work. In her animated films, she often used the collage principle, newspaper and magazine clippings, painting and graphic elements.
She often transposes not only collage aesthetics but also animation characters (beetle-men, bird-men, robot-men) into her graphic works or paintings from the turn of the 21st century onwards, or into her planchets (painting on paper), which are a kind of intermediate link between the work on the plane and animation, painting and graphics. (Mizan) scenes or each image of the estamp, like a film frame, uses the animated principle of composing the frame (flat object - background).
Nijolė Valadkevičiūtė's work is not only animation and graphic works. She illustrated Simonas Pileckis' book "Lithuanian Beetles" (1973), designed plays (1972-1975 she worked as an artist at Šiauliai Theatre), and painted. The legacy has not been systematically studied, but it is undoubtedly a significant part of Lithuanian visual culture.
Her works are in the collections of the National Art Museum of Lithuania, the Museum of Fine Arts and private collections.

Saulė Mažeikaitė-Teiberė