Archives

  • The Uses and Abuses of Artistic Research in Post-Disciplinary Academia
    No. 109 (2023)

    It is already 2023, which means almost four decades since the first doctoral program in the arts was started. Many things have changed, and many have stayed the same. Artistic research is no longer a novelty. Still, many artists and scholars raise their eyebrows when they face the practices and ambitions of artist-researchers.

    In this Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis (AAAV) issue some of the articles are written by scholars and some by artist-researchers from all around the world. As you will see, this collection contains intriguing and thought-provoking articles representing different perspectives on the arts, sciences, research, and many other artistic research-related aspects. Have a pleasant journey through the bogs and valleys of artistic research, populated by artists, scholars, curators, humanists, practitioners, academics, scientists, and other (not so) rare species.

    Editors of this issue: Aldis Gedutis, Vytautas Michelkevičius

    Editor Jūratė Šamelienė

    Editor, Proofreader Kerry Kubilius

    Translator Tomas Čiučelis

    Designer Jurgis Griškevičius

    Release date: 2023
    Pages: 236
    Format: 170 x 240
    Covers: Paperback

    Print run: 200

    eISSN 2783-6843 | ISSN 1392-0316

    The publication is sponsored by the National Development Programme of Lithuanistics (2016–2024) at the Research Council of Lithuania, agreement No. S-LIP-22-23

  • Wall painting in the church of Saint Leonard in Mala Ligonja (Slovenia), fragment. Photo by Eva Marija Fras, 2020

    Art and Architecture Conservation Training in Europe: Relevant Experiences and Mastering Conservation Methods
    No. 108 (2023)

    The cultural heritage and its definition, according to the paper conservator and conservation theorist Salvador Muñoz Viñas, experiences the Big Bang – its limits are rapidly expanding and involving more and more new media, technologies and values. The proliferation of objects considered to be part of the cultural heritage contributes to the natural “heritage growth” – today’s works of art and culture in the future will unavoidably be placed in the heritage category. Along with the definition of the cultural heritage, the scale and variety of conservation objects is also increasing, bringing along new challenges to the conservator’s profession. Thus, schools of higher education where young conservators are trained face a difficult task – to prepare new-generation conservation professionals who would be able not only to apply the acquired knowledge and skills diligently and responsibly and solve the dilemmas of conservation ethics independent- ly, but also to adapt to the increasing variety of objects under conservation.

    The Conservation Department of the Vilnius Art Academy organized the international conference “Art and Architecture Conservation Training in Europe: Relevant Experiences and Mastering Conservation Methods” on April 22–23, 2021. The

    participants of the conference – students and their academic supervisors from nine different European universities – presented art critical and technological research and case studies about already finished or just recently started to be processed conservation objects. The obvious success of the conference and the lasting value of the presentations and shared experiences led us to the decision to publish part of the presented research in this publication.

    Editors of this issue: Dalia Klajumienė, Indrė Užuotaitė

    Editor Jūratė Šamelienė

    Editor, Proofreader Kerry Kubilius

    Translator Aušra Simanavičiūtė

    Designer Jurgis Griškevičius

    Release date: 2023
    Pages: 272
    Format: 170 x 240
    Covers: Paperback

    Print run: 200

    eISSN 2783-6843 | ISSN 1392-0316

    The publication is sponsored by the National Development Programme of Lithuanistics (2016–2024) at the Research Council of Lithuania, agreement No. S-LIP-22-23

  • Jacques’o Derrida knygos Glas (1986) atvarto reprodukcija Arno Anskaičio doktorantūros meno projekte-disertacijoje „Žinojimas, kurį menininkas turi savo žinioje: septyni žymėlapiai“, 2021, Arno Anskaičio nuotrauka

    How to Tell About Art? Art History, Criticism, Texts and Narratives in Lithuania
    No. 107 (2022)

    Edited by dr. Lina Michelkevičė, dr. Laura Petrauskaitė, dr. Aušra Trakšelytė

    Copy editor Dalia Žalienė

    Translator Tomas Čiučelis

    Designer Jurgis Griškevičius

    Release date: 2022
    Pages: 320
    Format: 170 x 240
    Covers: Paperback

    Print run: 200

    eISSN 2783-6843 | ISSN 1392-0316

    The publication is sponsored by the National Development Programme of Lithuanistics (2016–2024) at the Research Council of Lithuania, agreement No. S-LIP-19-25.

    The aim of both art history and art criticism is to make the artwork – along with its relevant historical contexts and current events – accessible to our imagination. After all, artworks also reside in the viewer’s consciuosness where their presence is no less real, if not more intense, than in museums, galleries, public spaces and illustrated books. Putting art into words is not easy: along with the confident grasp of facts and contexts, the researcher needs to possess a vigorous and courageous imagination. Either when researching contemporary art, or interpreting the artworks of previous epochs, the art historians and critics are always busy telling stories and constructing narratives.

    With the expanding scope and growing complexity of the art historical field in Lithuania, there comes the need to reflect on the discipline from within. In response to this need, in the spring of 2021, the Institute of Art Research at the Vilnius Academy of Arts organised the conference “How to Tell About Art? Art History, Criticism, Texts and Narratives in Lithuania”. The participants were invited to discuss the many histories of Lithuanian art, their authors, narratory strategies, styles and aims – in other words, approach art history from the perspective of storytelling.

    The conference has raised the following questions: is there anything like the Lithuanian school of art history? is there a tradition of storytelling in Lithuania art history? who writes our art history and how? what disciplines and what liberates the narratives? do we still need art critics today, when the artists themselves are discussing and introducing their own art with increasing virtuosity? what is the role of imagination in shaping the art historical narrative, and vice versa: how the latter shapes and inspires our imagination? The conference papers and discussions served as a fertile ground for further developments, which also resulted in the entire issue of Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis being dedicated to this productive topic.

    We hope that the collective reflection by the authors in this issue of AAAV will in turn further deepen the self-reflection within the art historical discipline, reveal its current and historical shifts and transformations, and allow us to better notice how the discourse on art gets shaped, complemented, and questioned by the insights from the disciplines that are still relatively young in the Lithuanian context, like film theory and artistic research. We thus welcome the new narrators that come into the scene to enrich it with their own narratives and novel forms of storytelling.

  • Visions, Legends and Dreams in Art
    No. 106 (2022)

    The subject of this volume of Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis – the reflection of visions, legends, dreams and fantasies in art – is intriguing and multi-faceted. Geographically it includes European art and mostly focuses on Lithuania. The chronology of the works discussed in the publications extends from the 16th century until our days.

    Artistic imagination has been playing a very important role in artistic work at all times – it engenders a different artistic reality which is not identical to the realism of the visible world. Sometimes, imagination is awakened by myths and legends, and sometimes, by the plots of religious art related to the experiences of the Otherworld and visions. The theme of dreams related both to artists’ dreams or their efforts to visualize the visions or dreams experienced by other persons is not infrequent both in secular and sacral art.

    Texts by various authors, art historians and artists included in this publication address quite a wide range of issues of the interaction of visionariness, legends, dreams and art. The publications are divided according to their nature into scholarly articles and written sources presented at the end of the publication.

    Edited by Rūta Janonienė

    Release date: 2022
    Pages: 376
    Format: 17 x 24
    Covers: Paperback

    Print run: 200

    eISSN 2783-6843 | ISSN 1392-0316

  • Give My Regards to Those You Connect! Cultural Interactions Between South America and Eastern Europe
    No. 105 (2022)

    In their critical reconsiderations of the Western canon of art history, the researchers in this volume are calling for a rejection of the hierarchical approach towards art history and are inviting us to regard the latter from a more global and thus more horizontal perspective, which involves rethinking its geography, and recognising the new cultural connections. As the art history and the humanities in general experience a global turn, we see a significant increase in the amount of research on the cultural relations between the geographically remote regions. The artistic connections between South America and Eastern Europe is one such example of a previously under-researched area that is currently experiencing a growing interest.

    The aim of this volume is to expand and deepen our understanding of the artistic connections between both regions, enrich this field of research with new personalities, works of art and literature, notable exhibitions, and take up the unexpected perspectives. The title – Give My Regards to Those You Connect! Cultural Interactions Between South America and Eastern Europe – features a quote from the art project by Francisco Tomsich and exemplifies the importance of connections that differ in kind and intensity.

    This collection of texts covers a wide historical period spanning from the 17th to 21st centuries. The authors show how, over a range of historical periods, the religious festivities (Rūta Janonienė), art shows and world fairs (Lena Trüper, Karolina Jakaitė), art criticism and artistic networks (Katarzyna Cytlak), and literary translations (Krzysztof Siatka) became certain ‘contact zones’ for the emergence and development of cultural interactions between South America and Eastern Europe. In line with the problematic of connections, the volume features articles on mobility of images (Sigita Maslauskaitė-Mažylienė), transcontinental artistic migration (Laura Pertauskaitė), and the inter-textuality of modern poetry (Dovilė Kuzminskaitė). The authors also discuss the role of orientalist imagination in the construction of the South American and Eastern European identities (Gražina Bielousova), and rethink the impact of coloniality for art canons (Bart Pushaw).

    Edited by Laura Petrauskaitė

    Release date: 2022
    Pages: 320
    Format: 17 x 24
    Covers: Paperback

    Print run: 200

    eISSN 2783-6843 | ISSN 1392-0316

  • Architectural Ceramics: Finish Materials, Functional Equipment, Artworks
    No. 104 (2022)

    “Decorative ceramics”, “fine ceramics”, “folk ceramics”, “domestic ceramics”, “building ceramics”, “technical ceramics”, “industrial ceramics” etc. – all these terms are used to define different groups of ceramic artefacts. The term “architectural ceramics” has been chosen as the title of this volume with the intention to show that the “ceramic” themes analyzed in the publications are closely related to both functional and artistic building finish. Both elements are quite different by nature, as finish materials for a large part are a mass-produced industrial product, while artworks are original and singular, but due to the specific character of ceramics, in some cases they all come together producing very interesting technological and artistic solutions. 

    The texts published in this volume do not cover the entire subject theme of architectural ceramics, which is very wide and interesting. It remains to be hoped that the presented insights will kindle curiosity and will inspire more than one scientific article, artistic event, or continued research. 

  • Design processes
    No. 103 (2021)

    As a result of the penetrating and comprehensive nature of design, today we have so many trends and forms of designing activity. In addition to generally accessible and more traditional specializations (product and graphic design, fashion, interior, artistic or conceptual design), we also speak about critical design, a need for service design and open design, and the subject of sustainability is high on the agenda. In this volume of AAAV, besides the analysis of the already mentioned processes of contemporary design, problems of separate design fields – industrial, graphic, fashion and conceptual design – and their specific genres are addressed. The objects of research of the published articles are design examples from various historical periods created by both Lithuanian and international designers. Design processes are analyzed from the different perspectives of a designer, a producer, and a consumer – a group to which we all belong but take different roles, passive or active. 

  • The Material Body of the Book: Between Traditions and Innovation
    No. 101-102 (2021)

    Editor of this volume Dr. Jolita Liškevičienė

     

    Release date 2021
    Pages     520
    Format     170 x 240
    Covers     paperback
    Print run     200
    ISSN 1392-0316

    The publication is sponsored by the National Development Programme of Lithuanistics (2016–2024) at the Research Council of Lithuania, agreement No. S-LIP-19-25

     

    This issue of Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis is dedicated to the topic of printed books, which was also the main research subject of the international conference "The Material Body of a Book: Between Traditions and Innovations" held by the Art Theory Institute at Vilnius Academy of Arts (2020). The issue comprises a selection of adapted conference papers which focus on the questions of book structure, analyse the work of various book artists, overview the traditions of book art across various countries, and present the new visions of digital books. At first sight, this topic might seem overly narrow however, in addition to its focus on the specificity of book-making as a craft, the questions of its form and materiality imply many other phenomena and wide-ranging research topics – from title pages, fonts, illustrations and bindings, to the history of printed book, traces of readership, craftsmanship styles, and the impact of technological development; all these aspects are unveiled across the wide chronology and expanded on against the problematics of time and space.

  • Anniversary Culture / Jubiliejų kultūra
    No. 100 (2021)

    The 100th issue of Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis (AAAV) is devoted to the discussion of the anniversary phenomenon in culture, and the presentation of anniversary-related art and its reflection as a special field in art history. One of the most important purposes of celebrating or commemorating an anniversary is memory activation and the focus of attention on a particular person, institution or cultural phenomenon. With this choice of the subject, we hope to initiate research that would reveal how memory activation manifests itself, what traces it leaves in culture, and what role in this process is played by visual communication, the visible awakening of memory, and the capturing of the becoming and meaning of an event. We asked how artvvorks and visual artefacts related to anniversaries, commemorations and festivities are born, and how – or if – they live on when the jubilee year ends. Are works created to commemorate or assess a phenomenon remembered on their own merit?

    This volume contains five scholarly articles and three texts of artistic research. Alongside, the bibliography of all AAAV issues (previously also called “volumes”) is presented in a kind of jubilee gesture of recording the history of the journal itself.

  • Šarūnas Sauka, "Negatyvus požiūris", 1982

    Fotografija: tarpininkės vaidmenys kultūroje / Photography: Its Roles as an Intermediary in Culture.
    No. 99 (2020)

    Sudarė / Edited by
    dr. Agnė Narušytė

    Leidimo metai / Release date: 2020
    Apimtis / Pages: 367
    Formatas / Format: 170 x 240
    Viršeliai / Covers: minkšti / paperback
    Tiražas / Print run: 200
    ISSN 1392-0316

    The topic of this volume is photography, but not its artistic tradition or new developments. When museums finally recognized photography as an art form in the 1970s, artists discovered it as an ambiguous (both realist and fictional) medium. Photography critic Andy Grundberg called it ‘the common coin of cultural image interchange’ because‚ ‘photographs are no longer seen as transparent windows on the world, but as intricate webs spun by culture’. Since then, visual culture has become a limitless reservoir of images – easily reproduced and ‘authorless’– from which one could borrow those fragments of quasi-reality and use them to (re)create identities, myths, illusions of space and time, political convictions or history. Digital technologies have expanded those possibilities even more, especially because no one could translate images of any kind into digital format, transform them without leaving any trace of human hand and share across the world wide web of virtuality.

  • Tarpukario Vilnius: dailės ir architektūros pavidalai 1919–1939 metai / Interwar Vilnius (1919–1939): Shapes of Art and Architekture
    No. 98 (2020)

    Sudarė / Edited by
    dr. Algė Andriulytė

    Leidimo metai / Release date: 2020
    Apimtis / Pages: 384
    Tiražas / Print run: 200
    ISSN 1392-0316

    In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the art of the Interwar period in Vilnius, and this trend can now be observed not only in Lithuania but in the neighbouring countries as well (primarily Poland). The topicality of Vilnius modernism motivates us to consider its Interwar period art and architecture as belonging to the history of European modernism as a whole.

    This issue of Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis introduces a col lection of papers by researchers from a wide range of areas (including art history, art theory, architecture, and heritage studies). Their research re volves around just as wide a range of questions: Was there such a thing as Vilnius modernism, and what were its traits? What was its relation to local traditions and heritage? What brought it into existence (if it was there in the first place)? What roles did the state institutions and individuals play in art, architecture, and heritage?

    The joint efforts of Lithuanian and Polish researchers have opened new vistas of historical research into the art and architecture of Interwar Vilnius. They show us how the efforts of artists, architects, restorers, and conservationists were reflected in the cultural identity of the city and its citizens, the political artefacts, and other telling visual documents.

  • Dvarų kultūra: erdvės, istorija, architektūros paveldas / Manor Culture: Spaces, History, Architectural Heritage
    No. 97 (2020)

    Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis 97
    2020

    Sudarė / Edited by dr. Dalia Klajumienė

    Leidimo metai / Release date: 2020

    Apimtis / Pages: 513

    ISSN 1392-0316

     

    New highly relevant topics or domain-specific generalisations of the subjects explored over several decades are added to the field of discussions on manor research. With increasing confidence, the authors view the local culture in a wider European context, which also helps them to reveal specific Lithuanian features. Besides, as the conservation of manor ensembles has been gaining momentum, specialists in heritage protection start more actively sharing their insights to show not only what is recorded in historical documents, but also what is revealed by the walls of the surviving buildings or even their small fragments. The large variety of authors and their insights once again prove that the topic of manors itself is quite new and has a huge potential to develop and even branch out into separate trends or schools of researchers, who could hold discussions about the cultural heritage of manor ensembles or certain interpretations of that heritage.

  • Mask and Face: The Aspects of Pictorial History / Kaukė ir veidas: atvaizdo istorijos aspektas
    No. 96 (2020)

    Leidimo metai / Release date: 2020

    Apimtis / Pages: 344

    ISSN 1392-0316

     

    Sudarė / Edited by dr. Tojana Račiūnaitė

    New volume of Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis titled “Mask and Face: The Aspects of Pictorial History”. Many essays collected here are based on the talks given at the same-titled academic conference which was organised by the Institute of Art History at Vilnius Academy of Arts, and took place on 16–17 May, 2019.

    One of the aspects common to all the research published in this volume is that they explore the distinction (and interaction) between a face and a mask - the givenness and its concealment, individuality and generality - that can be traced in specific artworks, cultural phenomena, or the very thinking that testifies to these phenomena. Other part of the contributors to this volume consider the mask as a particular wearable object with its various types and uses, and its transformation into an iconographic motif or even a symbol.