Štelmanas Alonas
Born in 1978 in Kaunas. In 2004, he graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts in painting.
Alonas Štelmanas is a kind of enfant terrible of Lithuanian painting. He doesn’t need to try hard for this description. He just has to act as he wants and paint what he wants. And a significant part of the audience will be surprised, and the rest – shocked.
Minimalist, uncluttered spaces of oil pastels shimmering with fibers of dashes. As if they speak of the sea, the element of raging water and a safe shore. However, the author of the works, Alonas Štelmanas from Kaunas, claims that he hasn’t seen a real sea for a decade. And I look at him and understand that I haven’t seen such an authentic artist, hopelessly drowning in his visions to the last hair, probably for even longer.
Nowadays, you meet many utilitarian positive, thoughtfully perspective creators, who are essentially more like businessmen than artists, with whom it is extremely easy to communicate, because they perceive and accept the media as an element conducive to their own popularity. For each of your questions, a correct answer is prepared, aimed at the public ear as accurately as a rocket. The trouble is that those prudent answers prepared by rational self-awareness are so similar to each other that over time they begin to clone themselves uncontrollably in memory, erasing their hosts from it. And then they clone themselves, the same questions, the same “current” topics fly from text to text. Finally, howling out of boredom at this cultured, Euro-renovation-scented reception desk, you begin to long for the wild “minstrels” described by Jurgis Kunčinas, as if they were irrevocably extinct dinosaurs. He screams like a fish with its gills open, the waves of a sinking life forgotten on a drying shore.
And here, please meet Alonas, dragged out of a tiny room in Kaunas Kalniečiai by gallery owners. Who is not afraid to admit: in order for him to be able to come to the opening of his anniversary, twentieth, personal exhibition in Vilnius at the age of thirty-five, his mother went to borrow a hundred litas from a neighbor. And right there he calmly suggests: how about we go to the bar in the neighboring house to drink a beer?.. But – about everything in order.
Lauryna came – the aliens disappeared
“I worked in the summer, then I was in a psychoneurological hospital for two months. When I left there – I painted six more paintings,” – he says simply, without embellishing the events.
He also adds that in the hospital he was injected with such drugs that he could not stand up for a long time. And after forty days in the hospital, the violinist Lauryna – Alon’s fairy – came to visit him… She, the long-haired brunette, is depicted in many of the paintings in the exhibition. One of them is titled: “Lauryna – the girl of my dreams”.
“Maybe we can title the article that way?” – he asks naively. No, Alon, on a dry shore that thinks in a one-stop shop, that would be unforgivably banal.
And the water in the paintings is not the sea at all, but the Kaunas lagoon near Pažaislis. And the jetties in the water are just jetties, not solid piers… Those jetties often resemble hospital beds. As a boundary between different elements – water and land, life and death.
“I used to depict heartthrobs, little people and aliens who used to fly around my house. And these works were born out of a great love for Lauryna. Strangely enough – when I met Lauryna, the aliens from outer space disappeared. And these paintings appeared – with little steps, umbrellas, flags, lanterns and bottles,” – he nods his head towards the hall, where he himself, having just arrived, still doesn’t feel quite at home.
But a celebration of love is usually rendered in bright, fireworks colours. And here – black, emerald green, piercing blue and lots of violet, dissonant with the yellow of the lantern light… More mourning than a celebration. Mourning for rejected love?
“For me, this story is “non finito”. I both lost and didn’t lose… Lauryna, I love you!” – he whispers into the speaker of the dictaphone, as if into a live broadcast microphone. – And cold, electrified colors are characteristic of my people, it’s probably genes… Besides, Lauryna and I dress in dark clothes. We mourn this galaxy, although we have no other. But even in this galaxy by the lagoon, we were happy. By the lagoon, we made love.”
“People”
Painter A. Štelmanas “I think I am the most colorful artist in Lithuania” (interview)
Where do ideas for paintings come from?
From life, with the help of God and cosmic forces. I have a lot of experience, because I have been painting since I was 12, when my father brought me to Kaunas Art School, because I was not a bodybuilder. As a child, during summer vacations, I would close myself off and read the Lithuanian Soviet Encyclopedia about artists, their biographies, and works. At that time, the symbolists were impressive: cosmic colors, strange compositions. I even created a new style in the world – “global symbolism”. It is a union of five styles: romanticism, post-impressionism, fauvism, symbolism and expressionism.
What colors do you like the most?
Cosmic: cold electric green, pink, various shades of purple, lemon yellow, cold burgundy, blue
os color mixtures.
And the shapes?
Lithuanian symbolic motifs and also heart people, moon people, tsiburushkas. This is how I combine the sky, space and earth.
Why is the exhibition called “Fairies”?
Out of love. For a long time I didn’t love anyone and suddenly a muse appeared who bewitched me and now I feel like some kind of alien.
And who was the exhibition with the shocking title “Necrophilia” intended for?
For society. These are thoughts that came from the environment, my own life and experiences. Spiritual feelings, the economic situation in Lithuania and the world.
Does anyone finance your work?
No. I’m not looking for support, apparently I’m a non-standard artist and I don’t ask for help.
Have you ever painted yourself?
I recently painted the triptych “Self-portrait”, but it has already been bought by a collector from Vilnius.
Are there paintings that are spiritually too expensive to sell?
No, I sell all my paintings. I am not egoistic, I create art for the public.
Have you ever received orders to paint a painting?
There have been times when people have asked me to paint on demand, but I don’t do that. I am a non-commercial artist – happiness is not in money. I like my world – space, a closed territory, my workshop, I am separated from the world.
And do you feel the support of people interested in art?
Just by the way. People do not understand contemporary art. Maybe it is also the fault of pedagogy. I myself have been teaching art at Kaunas Special School for 10 years, I see art programs, they are imperfect. And I teach them in my own way, changing them.
Maybe then there will be artists among your students who could replace you in the future?
No one will replace me. I have my own style that no one else has and I do what I like – I can’t do anything else. I think I’m the most colorful artist in Lithuania.
And how do you rate other artists?
I don’t pay attention to other artists. I live in my own closed world, which is very difficult for outsiders to enter. It’s like a two-story house with a huge fence, a garage and a basement for a mermaid wife.
What would you answer to those who criticize your art?
I consider Raminta Jurėnaitė to be the best art critic, she is like a second mother to me, her support is the most important thing for me. And other art critics are very far behind.
What feelings should people who visit your exhibition have?
I want to enchant the visitors of the exhibition with my works, shock them. At the same time, comfort and surprise them.
Do you have friends?
Only on the male side, mostly artists…. I am constantly looking for reliable friends, but there are not many of them. I can’t stand phlegmatic people. I know a few artists who work slowly – I don’t like that. I’m melancholic, I like rain. Lithuania is a land of rain, umbrellas… I like it here.
Do you feel better in Kaunas or Vilnius?
I used to like Vilnius more, now – Kaunas. In Kaunas, there used to be so many devils, but now everything is changing – there are many angels around. I’ve been observing Kaunas all my life, in my childhood I used to ride public transport and observe places. It’s nice how many colorful and traditional – white angels around, even all the punks and hippies are like angels.
And are you happy?
I constantly lack spiritual warmth. I’m a romantic, a detached dreamer, I care about things of the imagination, space, a sense of cosmos. And the women around me are earthly, there are no more like me.
Source: Laikas.lt
