Virtual Exhibition of Creation of L. Truikys

LIUDAS TRUIKYS

Edmundas Gedgaudas
(E. Gedgaudas. Liudas Truikys. In Liudas Truikys: reprodukcijų rinkinys. Vilnius, Vaga, 1984)

Virtual Exhibition of Creation of Liudas Truikys>>>
I part II part III part

LIUDAS TRUIKYS was born on October 10, 1904 in Pagilaičiai, in the north-east Lithuania. His biographical facts were Telšiai secondary school, afterwards Kaunas School of Art (he completed the course of painting in 1928 under the guidance of A. Varnas and J. Vienožinskis), the beginning of stage designing (1931) and later advancing his mastership in Paris and Berlin (1934–1935 and 1937). Besides his occupation at the theatre he worked .for some time as a teacher of painting. But the formal biographical facts were not very much influential for the development of the striking individuality.
When Liudas Truikys began to work at the Kaunas State Theatre (it consisted of opera, ballet and drama companies) everybody felt there the very efficient activities of the prominent stage designer Mstislav Dobujinski. Sonorousness of his stage settings for musical productions greatly impressed the young artist and encouraged him to come out with his own response to the musical art of operas. The first deeply felt distinctive result of such aspirations was shown by Liudas Truikys's scenery for the A. Račiūnas's opera "The Three Talismans" (1935—1936). The artist's dialogue with the composer appeared to be the greatest achievement of the production later developed throughout the whole creative activity of stage designing. The scale model of "The Three Talismans" was awarded the honorary diploma in 1937 at the World Exhibition in Paris.
The evolution was slow and tense. Its main direction is shown by the reciprocalness of "The Three Talismans" with his latest works. Creating the stage setting for "Don Carlos" by Giuseppe Verdi (1959) Liudas Truikys began the most significant period of his career. As in earlier years there were not many completed works: "La Traviata" by G. Verdi (1966), "Gražina" by J. Karnavičius (1968), "Aida" by G. Verdi (1975), new sketches for the scenery of "Don Carlos" (1978). Describing this span of two decades the art critic I. Kostkeviciute had written: "Liudas Truikys's creation is an integral symphonism in motion, ringing together with music, and, as the music itself, very precise mathematically and harmonious with its inner logic and com-positional structure. At the same time his works are emotional, enchanting through the play of its luxuriant forms, rhythmic polyphony, harmony of tunefulness. The artist's stage settings present us a powerful manifestation of visual and audible impressions bestowing upon the viewer a true and deep spiritual catharsis."
This is what the artist himself had said: "Watching the monumental statues of Egypt I always got the impression that that endless simplification, leaving only several horizontalities or other accents, attracts us with the greater force because inside you feel as if tightly stretched piano strings." These words must be applied to the most of his stage designs. The statics of forms are made dynamic frequently by an aggressive force having its place somewhere inside. Here the ecstasically spiritual nature of the artist, subdued by the reserved and refined way of associating with other people, becomes as if an equivalent of his creation.
In his last works the artist achieved classical unity between the force of rhetoric and the eternal laws of harmony, common to all kinds of arts. The second variant of sketches for "Don Carlos" speaks the language of monumental symphonic forms. It's quite natural that for the analysis of this tragic, majestic and symphonically integral cycle musical terminology is more precise than that which is used by art critics.
Liudas Truikys is against the priority of the plot in opera. He acknowledges it as much as he finds it in music where the forms of sounds stick to the sequence of action. Through generalization of the plot ringing in the music he strives for more universal meanings. Without the real points of support (dramatical, musical, philosophical) all this would become only as ornamentation, play of virtuosity, meaningless beauty. That's why the music in his interpretation is linked by associations with elements surpassing the plot. In our imagination influenced by the artist the music advances not toward the literary programmaticism but to the grand existential problems manifesting themselves through various forms of art.