ARTIST AND HIS MUSE

Acrylic and oil on canvas

The painting ‘Artist and his Muse’ consists of two layers. The first features a figure of a woman floating on air, painted in soft strokes of blue shades. Depicted next to her are a face and hands of a man of bright warm colours and more energetic lines. The second layer depicts a contemplative figure of a young man with an ancient tombstone next to it and an upward growing tree behind it.

Even though it’s an autobiographical painting, there is no use trying to guess the name of the woman depicted – she doesn’t exist. The painting also does not try to weigh into the discussion on the problem of woman, whose role in the field of art has long been restricted only to that of a muse (an inspiration, an assistant). It’s a painting about the dreams and plans of young days that do come true. Only usually slightly differently than expected.

The painting was inspired a 25-year-old photo collage. A picture taken in Central England, in a churchyard of an old church, which captures Vilmantas sitting next to a tombstone. At the centre of the picture, Vilmantas later glued a Venus from a Bonzino’s painting, cropped from a museum’s catalogue. The 2018 painting retained the structure of tradition (the past), the present, and the future (dreams, plans): a young man (the present) is depicted next to a tombstone (the old tradition) and a growing tree (growth, future). The whole narrative is contained within the second layer while the first layer is reserved for more distinct characters.

The most distinct character in the painting is the man in the foreground, his face and arms. The woman’s body, even though depicted naked, does not look like made from ‘bone and blood’. Her ephemerality is further affirmed by the blue tones, which the painter usually reserves for depiction of intangible object that belong to the spiritual world. The muse is an inspiration rather than an actual woman. Nonetheless, the man’s hands are as if trying to hold and embrace her. Can an artist capture and firmly hold on to his inspiration for an extended period of time? The muse in this painting is visible yet elusive and unobtainable. And still at the same time, she is continually sought after by everyone, especially artists, to be captured.

 ‘Artist and His Muse’ is a story about dreams and plans of the young days, which are inevitably corrected, but not abandoned, by the artist’s practical wisdom, gained over time through experience.