Exhibition "Milda Bartnikaitė-Spindler. Life Stories. Graphic Art from the Collections of the Lithuanian Art Museum, 1977–2002"

5 - 24 June, 2018

Milda Bartnikaitė Spindler. The Rest. 1979. Etching and aquatint on paper, 22,2×15. © Lithuanian Art Museum

Artist Milda Bartnikaitė-Spindler was born in 1927 in Šiauliai and grew up in Kaunas. During the years of the Second World War, she and her family fled to Germany and later reached the United States via Austria and Canada. The world she saw as a refugee teenager formed the future artist’s broad world view. “The war-time backdrop revealed both the good and bad sides of human nature”, she recalls.

 

Having started studying at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute of Art in Utica, NY, she soon started a family. The many daily concerns and routine left little time for creativity.  Bartnikaitė-Spindler began creating art professionally when she had reached the age of fifty, when her four sons had already grown up. She completed a Bachelor in Fine Arts at the University of New Orleans in 1978. Prints make up the majority of Bartnikaitė-Spindler’s creative output, created using her favourite classical metal techniques. The artist chose etching, aquatint and has created wood and linocut prints, and from 1970 she has painted in oils and watercolours.

 

The artist lives in the southern states of the US, in Louisiana – in the so-called melting-pot of French, Creole and cotton plantation cultures. Her home is in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie (the French word métairie refers to a small farming homestead). Bartnikaitė-Spindler is a member of the New Orleans Art Association and the Pearl River Country Arts League. In 1995–1998 her works were exhibited at the Anglade Barthelemy gallery and at the German Heritage Festival in Gretna in 1998. The artist donated five of her works to the Lithuanian Art Museum following an exhibition of Lithuanian émigré artists’ works held at the Fine Art Exhibition Centre in Vilnius in 1988. A new consignment of works donated by this artist reached the museum in 2017. 

 

In her works, Bartnikaitė-Spindler develops an open, intimate narrative about life in the surrounds of the southern states, enhancing it with daily details from her life on the property in Metairie. On the other hand, the artist constructs her narrative by incorporating images that lie beyond just the walls of her suburban house. Her prints often feature the calm, sleepy out-of-the-way township. The open and somewhat naive narrative style, richly naturalist form and attention to detail in the artist’s work is reminiscent of realist novels. The slow-paced narrative and accentuated social context infiltrates her work with the colours of the uniquely archaic local culture. Nature is one of the strongest creative impulses for the artist. It is by no accident that her prints often feature the locals of the Louisiana swamps, coves and coastal marshes – birdlife, lush tropical plants, flowers and the trees native to the banks of the Mississippi. The author notices and reflects on the aesthetics and variety of the landscape that surrounds her. “In my art one can notice hints of beauty”, she says. This link between artistry and daily life is the artist’s individual way of understanding her world and living in it.

 

The author’s subject matter and characters are often noted for their neglected appearance. Empty streets, lonely young women, resting men and children often unexpectedly have their backs turned to the viewer. Searching for an individual character and suitable means of expression, the artist focuses on contour lines and the emotions aroused by the stains of colour. “I think it is important to talk about a person’s individuality as a form of freedom of choice, which was so lacking during the war years. Creating art is my way of expressing individuality”, she says. 

 

Ilona Mažeikienė, Irena Dobrovolskaitė

 

Curators: Ilona Mažeikienė, Irena Dobrovolskaitė

Organiser Lithuanian Art Museum

The collection was donated by Milda Bartnikaitė Spindler (USA)

The exhibition and catalogue is sponsored by Steven Spindler

 

1 Goštauto st, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 261 6764.
kasiulio.muziejus@lndm.lt

See also

Book presentation

Presentation of the exhibition catalogue “Milda Bartnikaitė-Spindler: Life stories. Graphic art, 1977–2002“