Edvardas Malinauskas. “Oh, Mother Sea”
Welcome to the infinity of double eights (88), endless stories, endless sea. In his youth, during a trip to a fencing competition in Vilnius, Edvardas stopped by the Vilnius Art Institute – and that moment sealed his fate. He kept painting ever since. He is still painting the Baltic Sea. A note glued to his paint box reads: “Success depends on diligence.” That’s his motivation to go on.
Edvardas Malinauskas (born 1937) is a living legend. This exhibition is a tribute to him – painter and marine artist, a prominent figure of Klaipėda, Honorary Citizen and Cultural Magister of the city. We invite you to once again dive into the boundless sea of the artist – the sea in which he himself continues to drift, once having sailed the lagoon waves in a boat he built with local craftsmen.
In the Main Hall unfolds the experience of an absolute element – the sea, the central theme and essence of Malinauskas’s art. Here, an untamed force permeates the space – a force understood through long years of observation, experience, and painting. His art is not a depiction, but an emotional state – one in which the artist “worships” the sea rather than “portrays” it. He sets aside all secondary detail, focusing instead on the epic encounter between water and sky. Here we see a full spectrum of the sea’s moods and tempers – a dialogue between expression and calm. The masterfully painted waves invite us to surrender to freedom, to drift, to feel the wealth and beauty that surround us – just as the artist intends.
On the first floor, the rhythm of the sea gives way to the depth of personality and the fading memory of the city. The display evokes the atmosphere of a personal museum or a stage set. In this one-man performance, there is but a single character – the CREATOR himself – the very epicentre of it all. Through a selection of lesser-known works and a variety of artefacts from the artist’s personal space, the exhibition reveals Edvardas Malinauskas as not only the painter of the sea, but also the creator of the city’s face.
He is a legendary figure whose works are inscribed in Klaipėda’s memory, in its visual recollections. His eighty-eight years form two symbols of eternity, infinity and cyclic return – flowing and rippling like the sea itself.
The artist Edvardas Malinauskas was destined for Klaipėda. His parents met during the interwar Sea Festival, yet he – their firstborn – was born not in Klaipėda but in Radviliškis, due to the historical circumstances of the time. After the war, the Malinauskas family returned to Klaipėda. The city, rising from ruins, became Edvardas’s true home. Over time, a special bond formed between the artist, the port city and the sea – a bond he defines simply: “I have grown into the sea; it lives within me.”
The extraordinary exhibition “Oh, Mother Sea” invites the people of Klaipėda and the city’s guests to experience the artist’s sea and to rediscover him as a remarkable personality who continues to leave a vivid mark on the city.