Antanas Sutkus
dal 25/9/2008 al 25/10/2008
Segnalato da
25/9/2008
Antanas Sutkus
Grinberg Gallery, Moscow
Lithuanian Portraits. Artist's body of work bears witness to the country's subjection to Soviet rule, presenting a visual history of Communism in an objective but humanistic documentary style. Throughout, it is the daily trials of ordinary Lithuanians from rural villages that tell the story.
Curated by Nadim Julien Samman & Anya Stonelake
An exhibition of works by Lithuania's most celebrated photographer, Antanas Sutkus
(b. 1939 -). A master of monochrome documentary photography, Sutkus has had a strong
influence on the development of photography in the Baltic. His lucid and
extraordinary images of everyday events in his Lithuanian homeland have been
compared to the humanistic approach of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Andre Kertesz.
Sutkus' body of work bears witness to the country's subjection to Soviet rule,
presenting a visual history of Communism in an objective but humanistic documentary
style. Throughout, it is the daily trials of ordinary Lithuanians from rural
villages that tell the story.
Beyond recording events, Sutkus' keen eye finds history in human faces. Portraits
such as the profoundly affecting Blind Pioneer (1962) radiate pathos, the product of
intense sensitivity on the part of the photographer. Indeed, Sutkus' humanistic
approach, in debt to Cartier-Bresson, comes to the fore in both his images of
children and old people. Treading a delicate path that is rooted in care for his
subjects, the photographer manages to avoid sentimentality in recording the passage
of being into life - and towards death. Filled with romance, beauty and sadness,
they move beyond photographic realism like stills from an unmade film. His stated
aim is 'to make an attempt at drawing a psychological portrait of contemporary man'.
He continues - 'future generations will judge our way of life, our culture and our
inner world on the basis of photographs.' The selection on show in 'Lithuanian
Portraits' are his testimony.
As a child Sutkus worked with his mother digging peat; not earning enough to buy for
a bicycle he bought a camera instead. He later became a photojournalist and, since
1969, has worked as an independent photographer. Co-founder and President of the
Photography Art Society ofLithuania which championed photography as an art form,
Sutkus helped gain international recognition for Lithuanian photographers. He now
devotes more time to archiving images but has an enduring passion for photography
saying, 'I have not got tired of taking photographs but I find it ever more
difficult to find my subjects. One has to love people in order to take pictures of
them.'
In 2001-02, Sutkus won the Erna & Victor Hasselblad Foundation Grant, Sweden, for
'Documentation and Conservation of Antanas Sutkus' Archive of Photographs'. His
works are displayed in the collections of Lithuanian Museum of Art, Vilnius;
National Library, Paris; Museum of French Photography, Paris; Museum of Photography,
Helsinki; International Centre of Photography, New York; Institute of Arts, Chicago;
Art Museum, Minneapolis; Art Museum, Boston; Victoria and Albert Museum, London;
Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm; and The Moscow House of Photography.
Image: Pioneer, Ignolina, 1967. Gelatin-silver print 59.5 x 50 cm
For additional information and any questions please contact:
Tanya Nikitina nikitina@photographer.ru
Gallery.Photographer.ru
Bottling Hall, Winzavod Contemporary Art Centre
4th Syromyatnicheskiy pereulok, 1/9 Moscow Russia
Visiting hours:12 pm - 8 pm
closed Monday