Rūta Katiliūtė was born in Marijampolė in 1944. She enrolled in the State Art Institute of Lithuania (now Vilnius Academy of Arts) to follow stained glass art courses in the Department of Painting (1962-1968). Confronting the history of 20th century art with her own fascinations, the artist created a unique, objectively difficult to describe – because it is experience-driven – vernacular.
Katiliūtė’s distinctive painting is one of approachable immensity, of quantifiable limitlessness. This vertiginous effect is achieved through a subtle, highly mastered and sensitive use of colour. Using transparent layers of oil paint (not unlike the Flemish Primitives), she constructs these nuanced abstract quasi-monochromatic compositions of unbelievable depth. Blue, the colour of cosmic infinity, holds a special place in her corpus, as most of her works feel like observing the sky and appreciating the incremental changes engendered by time’s passing and the movement of the earth (our vantage point) within the universe. Regardless of scale, the meditative effect is always the same, and always achieved.
It is difficult, however, to speak of a ‘subject’ in Katiliūtė’s practice. The foggy atmosphere produced by the vaporous experience seems to take precedence over the image itself, as if the painting were a mere springboard. In that regard, the artist’s admiration for Malevich’s suprematism, the geometric abstraction of which aimed to reveal a greater perceptible reality, is apparent. Hence, perhaps, why Katiliūtė’s art is so difficult to articulate.
This unique body of work resonated quickly with her contemporaries. By 1994, she had held two solo exhibitions in Germany. In the 21st century she has shown work at: ‘Synonims’, Māksla XO gallery, Riga, Latvia (2018); ‘Nebulosity’, Meno Niša gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania (2016); ‘Light Studio’, Kaliningrad Exhibition Hall, Kaliningrad, Russia (2015); ‘Paintings’, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, Vilnius, Lithuania (2013); ‘De-fragmentation’, Vilnius Academy of Arts Titanikas Exhibition Halls, Vilnius, Lithuania (2012); ‘Minimum’, Meno Niša gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania (2006); ‘Sky territory’, Meno Niša gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania (2005); ‘Rūta Katiliūtė’, Galerie Brockstedt, Berlin, Germany (2004); ‘White Shadows’, Meno Niša gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania (2003); ‘Painting’, Šiauliai Art Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania (2001-2002); Baroti gallery, Klaipėda, Lithuania (2000).
Her career has been punctuated by various awards and grants: a Lithuanian National Culture and Arts Prize (Lithuania) in 2016; a State Scholarship for Artists (Lithuania) in 2001; a grant from the Golart Stiftung and the Department of Arts and Culture of Munich in 1996; a State Scholarship for Artists (Lithuania) in 1995-1996; a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (USA) in 1994; a grant from the Department of Arts and Culture of Dusseldorf in 1993; a Gastatelier des Künstlerhauses Scholarship (Salzburg, Austria) in 1989.
Between 1997 and 2001, she conceived 14 educational programmes for children at the Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
