Lot 849: ALEKSANDRAS MACIJAUSKAS

B.1938 TWO WORKS FROM LITHUANIAN VILLAGE MARKETS SERIES; UNTITLED, FROM VETERINARY CLINICS SERIES Three silver prints flush-mounted to card. One signed, titled, numbered Nr. 5a, dated 1973 and stamped with artist’s stamp and Photography Art Society of the Lithuanian SSR stamp on the reverse; one titled, numbered Nr. 27, dated 1970 and stamped with artist’s stamp on the reverse; one signed, titled, numbered Nr. 52, dated 1978 and stamped with artist’s stamp and Photography Art Society of the Lithuanian SSR stamp on the reverse. Quantity: 3 29 by 38.5 cm (11 3/8 by 15 1/8 in.); 29.5 by 37.3 cm (11 5/8 by 14 5/8 in.); 38 by 29.5 cm (15 by 11 5/8 in.)

A. Macijauskas, Château d'Eau, Toulouse, 1986, illustrated (another edition exhibited) Aleksandras Macijauskas, Portfolio Gallery, London, 1991 (another edition exhibited) Aleksandras Macijauskas, Lithuanian Museum of Art, Lemont, IL, 1994, illustrated on cover (another edition exhibited) Aleksandras Macijauskas: Retrospective, Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography, Moscow, 2009 (another edition exhibited) The Lithuanian School: Western Photography in the USSR, Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography, Moscow, 2011 (another edition exhibited)

'Photostroika: New Soviet Photography', Aperture 116, New York, 1989, ill. p. 26 Aleksandras Macijauskas, My Lithuania, London, 1991, pp. 23, 58, 87

Aleksandras Macijauskas is one of Lithuania’s best-known photographers. He started practicing photography in the early 60s and was hired as a reporter for his local newspaper in Kaunas in 1967, which allowed him to pursue photography full time. The reportage work led him to create one of his most famous series, Lithuanian Village Markets(1967-1973). Macijauskas found the full spectrum of human expression in the people of the village markets. He continued to travel to remote villages in search for his characters, who in their sincere humanity, their interactions with children, animals and belongings, not only brought back the artist’s own childhood memories but also referenced the Lithuanian people and their common passions as a whole. His Veterinary Clinics series, which followed in 1977, were partly inspired by the artist’s experience at the markets. The photographs depicting animals being prepared for medical procedures, juxtapose pain and suffering with simple benevolence. A symbiosis of the grotesque and the pure, they convey the essential tropes of existence. An edition of this series is held at the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.