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The Photography Museum presents a retrospective of creation of the avant-garde photographer Saulius Paukštys
The Photography Museum has opened a retrospective exhibition of the creative works of photographer Saulius Paukštys “Images and Visions”. It is the largest and most comprehensive presentation of the author’s creation to date, covering a creative period of more than 4 decades, ranging from the first photography attempts at school to the most recent works created this year. The exhibition encompasses the artist’s most important creative themes, ideas, forms of rebellion, and technique expressions. It is important in forming the author’s unbroken photographic picture and reveals a broad spectrum of his creation in different periods.
The exhibition will run until March 2, 2025.
Avant-garde photographer, public figure and organiser of various art events Saulius Paukštys (born in Vilnius in 1964) appeared on the Lithuanian photography scene in the last decade of the Soviet era. Having started photographing the lives of his classmates, during his student years in Kaunas in 1982-1987, he seriously immersed himself in photographic creation, experiments and the search for his own creative path. The decisive factor here was acquaintances with Arūnas Kulikauskas, Gintautas Stulgaitis, Visvaldas Dragūnas and involvement in the activities of the informal group “Plėšrieji” (“Predators”). This creative association of photographic “hooligans” became an exceptional phenomenon in contemporary Lithuanian photography, which also influenced the formation of S. Paukštys’ philosophy of creation and style.
In photography, the author sought individuality, contrary to the then prevailing culture of excessive printing of photographic images, and created unitary photographic works. For this purpose, among other things, he employed various means of image transformation, such as montage, collage, double exposure; he coloured, tinted, painted, burned and in different other ways re-created the photograph, which this way became only the basis and the initial material for the expression of the author’s creative flight and visions.
After 1990, “Predators” took different creative paths; thus, the artists’ individualities continued to form separately too. In 1990-2000, S. Paukštys had an academic job at Vilnius Academy of Arts. He was one of the founders of the Department of Photography and Video Art, and in 1994, he established the photography studio “Fototeatras” (“Phototheater”). At that time, the author’s creation changes: studio works that contain directorial elements, stage plots start dominating. During this period, his as a portraitist’s talent also emerges.
S. Paukštys continues to combine artistic photography with other arts, introduces graphic elements, colours, glues, draws and paints on the photographic image and this way creates multifaceted works. A new impetus for S. Paukštys’ creation was given by “The School of New Communication” – a fictional institution that united rebellious artists and art critics for the new art movement, which was led by S. Paukštys since 1993. During this period, performativity and pop-cultural sweetness emerge in S. Paukštys’ photography. His creation is permeated with “fluxus” moods: photography becomes a medium for expressing irony, parody; it turns into a witty message, an advertising postcard or a conceptual metaphor, sometimes supplemented with the author’s texts and poetry.
Although S. Paukštys’ creation was changing over time and is very diverse, it contains recurring motives: in all periods, the author highlights the social aspect, photography is important to him as a way of communication, as a means of expressing his position, through photography the author rethinks history, “observes” the change and relationship between the historical and contemporary landscape of his native Vilnius. Delving into the essence of the photographic medium and its history influenced the motives of classical photography stylistics in S. Paukštys’ creative work.
Since 2017, they have been further enhanced by the use of the historical Van Dyke brown technique to photograph urban landscapes or portraits. Today, the author is also engaged in digital creation, he interprets the motives of history and historical photography by means of artificial intelligence and accompanies AI-generated images with fictitious “historical” stories of his own creation.
S. Paukštys is an interdisciplinary creator, his photographic experiments have expanded the boundaries and perception of artistic expression in photography. He is a rebel, a contextual artist, distinguishing himself by his conceptual and distinctive creative style and personality.
Although the author is actively involved in today’s cultural life and presents his latest works, his early creation is now already almost forgotten and under-reported. From the perspective of time, the creator’s works are acquiring increasing value: they are a reflection of time and the person’s inner states, which unfolds the development of the author’s creative strategies and turning points as well as the genesis of the author’s contemporary creative style.
Organiser – The division of Šiauliai Aušra Museum – The Photography Museum
Exhibition curator – Vilija Ulinskytė-Balzienė
Communication designer – Darius Linkevičius
The exhibition features works from the Photography Museum, the MO Museum, the archive of the Lithuanian Photographers Association, of the collections of Ramutis Petniūnas and the author.
The exhibition was partially financed by Šiauliai City Municipality