Master sculpture in High-Fired clay, oxides and pigments. The dimensions are Approx. 28" x 23" x 3.5". Nijolė began her artistic career as a painter and graphic artist in the Visual Art Academy of Stuttgart (Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste) in 1946–1950, with G. Gollwitzer and Willy Baumeister as her teachers. That is why, perhaps, she tended towards German expressionism – an international movement that began just before World War I, when chaos became a metaphor for the world. In Nijolė’s work we observe a lot of disorder vs. the logic of the classical world, because that is her world. Just married in 1950, she came to Colombia to work as an artist in newspapers and magazines. Later she joined the studio of Lithuanian potter Juozas Bagdonas. When he left for the United States, she inherited the studio and dropped the brush and the printer to concetrate on the rich tradition of pre-Colombian artifacts. For the next fifty years Nijolė worked with fire and clay, producing an immense number of art objects of diverse dimensions and weights. Some of them are so heavy, 200 to 300 pounds, that one has to ask how a petite woman can lift such heavy objects. Other structures and installations take up a whole room, and if they don’t fit, they continue onto the roof or into the garden of her home. At the time of Nijolė’s arrival in Colombia, the country’s artistic milieu was very much molded by the socialist and indigenist movements. Then few foreigners started to work in abstract art, producing a mixture of Kandinsky and American abstract expressionism. By the 60’s the milieu had changed completely and Bogotà became an international centre of Western culture and art. Nijolė’s philosophy of art also changed, and with time her work became less realistic and more creative. She was fascinated by the infinite variety of clay that she herself dug up every week from the Andes foothills, and brought back to her studio, which is also her home. Like her skillful predecessors, the Chibchas and Quimbayas (Colombian indigenous tribes) she created imaginative forms and shapes with rich patinas and colors obtained through oxides and fired up to 1,030° C in the kiln. Her son helped her to install and improve it. Her art grew out of Colombia, her new home. She abandoned her Lithuanian artistic heritage and submerged herself in the rich Indian and Mestizo traditions, yet did not completely forget her native land. She taught her son and daughter the language and history of Lithuania, and a respect for their heritage. She spoke to them only in her native tongue. Nijolė’s works with clay, iron and rope is difficult to classify. She is a sculptor, a creator of structures and installations, a ceramist. She could also be called an artisan who enjoys her work for its own, as many anonymous amateurs do. I would classify her mainly as a sculptor who works with clay and creates complex art objects for posterity. There is a monumentality to even her smallest installations. In most cases, her work is not beautiful (“I am not looking for beauty” she says). Her work is strong, sometimes grotesque, and fantastic. The collection of iron, clay, carbon, and earth reminds us of the primitive forces that give life and are limitless in space. They hang above us, they intrude on our intimacy, they are not easy to understand or to accept. They are what they are, and the artist does not care. She looks with disdain at our amazement, and she is the one who asks the questions. Her work defines her and she accepts that definition gladly because, after all, nobody can really understand her work better than she herself. Her works – if we persist in calling them ceramics – has no utilitarian purpose, you can’t drink or eat from them. You can put them in some corner and admire them as works of art, you can interact with them, touch them, push them, make sounds. After all, they have been baked at over a thousand degrees Celsius, they will last, like a rock, forever. Nijolė has given clay the same nobility as stone, marble or wood. She succeeds where many have failed. Her hands enjoy kneading the clay. The colors of her finished pieces are dark red, yellow, black, according to the choice of the clay, and sometimes from the natural reactions of the oxides and glazes during firing. She used to work with lead. Lately, because of her fragile health, the Department of Health has intervened and stopped her chemical adventures, but who is Nijolė to listen?. All of life Nijolė’s life work could be defined in three stages. The first phase is one of expressionist paintings and prints. These are too close to what she learned at art school and were never truly hers. She knew this and abandoned them with disdain. The second period is a search that lasted almost twenty years. The change of continents and of language and culture had an impact on her, and it took her a while to decide what steps to take next. This was a very poetic period, with some great successes, but still very much under the influence of German expressionism and too close to indigenous art. Nijolė was not happy with the results and finally, almost twenty five-years ago, she turned to creating objects that do not exist in reality because according to her, if they do, why bother to repeat them. It seems like such a logical reflection that Nijolė had to think about why she hadn’t thought of this before. Here we discover her as a philosopher, a thinker and poet. In one show in Medellìn, Colombia (1994) she asks: “What are my objects doing in a building? They are my works, they look at people who come and go.“ For a while she refused to give them titles, but for practical reasons had to give in. The titles are poetic, all part of a puzzle that becomes the great symphony that is her entire work. Although after her first exhibition in the noted Hall of the Biblioteca Nacional of Bogota in 1955, Nijolė swore not to exhibit anymore, she broke her oath eight years later, and in her fifty years as an artist has had more than twenty individual exhibitions around the world, participating in over a hundred collective shows in the United States, Lithuania, France, Australia, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Ecuador. This lot is located in Boca Raton, Fl. Sometimes Artelisted can decide to coordinate shipping with a third party (between buyer and contractor). Shipping insurance is the responsibility of the buyer. Ask us if you want to add insurance cost. Note that if there is loss or damage due to bad handling by the transporter, this loss will be assumed only by the buyer. Enquires are welcome, do not hesitate to contact us at your convenience, we are looking to providing you with an excellent service.