Captain Sanseckis

Please meet Captain Sanseckis, from a work by graphic artist Mikalojus Povilas Vilutis, done in 1977. Do you notice how the captain barely fits into the painting's space, standing firmly within its center? The calm, off-gray space is exploded by the massive shapes and brilliant colors. What raw power exudes from the body, how lush is the cigarette smoke and how self-assured the posture! It seems that, along with the poisonous combination of yellow and black, the air fills with the harsh sea wind, accompanied by the most inventive of sailor's curses.
A painting inspired by adventure
When reviewing other works by Vilutis of this period, it is not hard to see that this piece is quite distinct with its bright colors. It is also one of the few pieces by this graphic artist that depicts an actual person. Vilutis met Captain Sanseckis on an island in the Sea of Japan, where the young artist was earning money working as a diver gathering sea urchins. The captain would come to the island to collect their catch, and sometimes ferry the divers to the mainland. The painting was created upon Vilutis' return to Lithuania. This explains the brightness of the colors – the piece still resonates with the mood and experiences of his travels. The centric composition and simplified, monumental shapes of this painting are typical of Vilutis' early work. The important thing here is not the likeness of the portrait, but the emotion therein: a brutal masculine force and a taste for adventure. If we look more closely, we can also feel the loneliness of a sailor on the boundless expanse of the seas.
When this painting was created in 1977, the artist was 33. After five years of rejection by exhibition halls, he was finally noticed and recognized. Since that day, Vilutis has always been offered the respect of audiences and critics, both for the introduction of silkscreen printing to Lithuania, and for the original style with which he creates not only paintings, but also posters
Readers of the cultural press are also fond of Vilutis' articles on artistic topics, as well as the book Cake, written and illustrated by the artist and published in 2009
In truth, Vilutis' style would later change rather radically. In place of his early works inspired by the style of Pablo Picasso and their strong shapes and colors, his new creations will deploy the complicated and graceful shapes more typical of surrealist art with surfaces adorned with fine ornamentation and coloring.