90x60

90x60. Posters from Lithuanian Photography Exhibitions. 1970-1987

The display of posters from photography exhibitions was conceived primarily in the context of the Vitas Luckus retrospective. Posters for exhibitions organised by the LSSR Society of Art Photography show the way photography was presented officially in Lithuania between 1970 and 1987. The Society of Art Photography, which was ideologically controlled, and which exercised control over its activities, promoted a uniform aesthetic style, and created a distinctly Soviet world, which was safe, albeit multifaceted.

The exhibition posters are typical of the 1970s and 1980s. Their colours, form, bilingual texts, varying paper quality, complex techniques that often involved painstaking work by hand, and standard poster size of 90 by 60 centimetres, or the rejection of all of these, tell us not only about past exhibitions, but also about the political, economic and cultural realities in Lithuania at the time. Intended for the general public, these posters also reflect the life of society. After all, the poster was undoubtedly one of the most effective means of visual communication in those days. The exhibition consists of four parts, displayed in four spaces on the gallery's second floor.

The displays in the side wings of the second floor highlight the broad and diverse programme of exhibitions of the Society of Art Photography. Posters, using different techniques, by Saulius Chlebinskas, Rimantas Dichavičius, Algirdas Grubevičius, Jonas Gudmonas and other professional artists, as well as posters by photographers themselves, catch our attention with their artistic ingenuity and the way they combine the expressive forms of advertising and aesthetics that were typical of the time.

Posters designed by Juozas Galkus, one of Lithuania's most renowned poster designers, are presented separately. The Society of Art Photography considered Galkus to be the best poster designer, and would commission him when it needed high-quality work. His personal style, together with his flexible approach to the client's wishes, earned him a special role in the advertising of photography exhibitions. Filmed materials develop the theme of photography exhibitions: they include a 1984 documentary about the photography exhibition Man and Earth by the film director Robertas Verba, and unedited footage by the photographer Juozas Kazlauskas, which reveals various aspects of the Society's activities between 1972 and 1986.

Curator: Živilė Etevičiūtė

Exhibits have been kindly lent by: the Lithuanian Archives of Literature and Art, the Lithuanian Central State Archives, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, the Union of Lithuanian Art Photographers, Lietuvos kinas, the Lithuanian Film Studios, Juozas Galkus and Dalia Kazlauskienė

Sponsors: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania

Special thanks to the Museum of Vilnius Academy of Art