Mindaugas Skudutis, An Unpleasant Man

Mindaugas Skudutis (born 1948)
An Unpleasant Man
2016, drb., al., 24 × 19
Sign. AD: Skudutis /16

Mindaugas Skudutis (b. 1948) Skudutis's work opens up an important gap in 20th-century Lithuanian painting: he was one of the members of the unofficial group Penketas (Penketas), who, together with other artists, railed against the Soviet aesthetics of domestic painting.
Mindaugas Skudutis's early work is characterised by an expressive, intense manner of painting, characterised by a darker colour palette, emotional undertones and dramatic themes. During this period, the artist depicts existential states, human fragility, illness, anxiety, and loneliness, often embedded in fragmented urban spaces or dreamlike interiors. Skudutis's early work is important because it reveals his attitude as a representative of an unofficial art that disregarded the Soviet system of norms. It formed the main features that later developed into a mature interpretation of fragments of urban landscapes and everyday life.