MO exhibition Eyes and Fields – a meeting of artists who transcended their era
A new small exhibition Eyes and Fields. Rose Lowder and Kazimiera Zimblytė has opened at the MO Museum. Curated by Inesa Brašiškė and Miglė Survilaitė, it presents –for the first time in Lithuania – the work of two innovative artists who created in very different contexts: Soviet-occupied Lithuania and Western Europe. Through painting and experimental cinema, the exhibition explores how we see and experience the world, challenging stereotypes about abstract art.
Different contexts – similar themes
Abstract painter, collage, assemblage, and installation artist Kazimiera Zimblytė was pushed to the margins of official artistic life during the Soviet era because of her chosen artistic direction. Although she received no recognition until her death, Zimblytė is now regarded as one of the most innovative artists of her time. In 2024, one of her works, donated by the founders of the MO Museum, was added to the collection of the Pompidou Center in Paris.
For Eyes and Fields, the curators chose to present Zimblytė alongside an unexpected yet meaningful counterpart from another discipline: experimental cinema.
Rose Lowder, an artist born in Peru and living in France, has been working with a 16 mm camera since the 1970s, exploring the possibilities of film, optical phenomena, visual perception. Although the artists’ biographies and mediums may appear very different at first glance, the curators emphasize that they share many similarities – first and foremost, a deep interest in how we see and experience the world.
“The historical contexts differ, but what united them is their remarkable freedom. In a sense, the exhibition itself is about freedom – about abstraction in many forms: painting, textiles, video works. Rose Lowder’s pieces become painterly, while Kazimiera Zimblytė’s works take on a cinematic quality,” says Survilaitė.
Connected by abstraction and textile thinking
Eyes and Fields is an exhibition where the focus is not on narrative or recognizable imagery, but on processes of seeing, experiencing, and thinking. According to the curators, the title reveals two important aspects of the artists’ work: both were strongly influenced by nature, and among Zimblytė’s drawings the exhibition includes one where she herself wrote the word pievos (fields). Meanwhile, the “eyes” refence the act of seeing – what and how we see – and also point to the textile-like thinking characteristic of both artists.
“Lowder has said that she ‘weaves images’ in her work. Using 16 mm analog film, she applies a specific self-developed technique that she calls weaving. This is an important connection to Zimblytė’s work: we want to highlight the textile element that can be felt throughout her entire practice,” says exhibition co-curator Inesa Brašiškė, research director and curator at the Sapieha Palace.
Brašiškė and Survilaitė emphasize that the artists’ different media reveal abstraction as a critical, dynamic, and engaging mode of creation. They note that people often hesitate when approaching abstraction, finding it less immediately understandable than recognizable forms. Yet the curators encourage viewers to set aside these assumptions and simply enjoy the works by tuning into their own bodies – by noticing how it feels to look at static and moving images.
“Abstraction is sometimes stereotypically seen as vague and incomprehensible. Especially in these turbulent times, we tend to look for explanations, usually through understandable symbols. But abstraction may in fact be the most democratic and free form of art – it shifts and opens our thinking, allowing us to attach different meanings and sensations to works of art, and reminds us that what we think we understand is never the only possible meaning,” says Survilaitė.
Highlighting women’s contributions to modern art
Vision, textile thinking, and ecological awareness are not the only connections between Lowder and Zimblytė. Both worked in fields traditionally dominated by men and have not received the recognition they deserve.
The curators note that during the Soviet period, Kazimiera Zimblytė faced multiple layers of discrimination: unable to enroll in painting studies dominated by men, she was forced to pursue textile arts, and later created abstract works, which were banned in the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Rose Lowder worked in an already marginal field – experimental, avant-garde cinema –where she was one of the very few women practicing in this discipline.
“What we are doing in this exhibition is not a typical format, it breaks certain exhibition norms, but in a conceptual way. In this case, it is a feminist gesture – one closely connected with bringing women’s contributions to art and modernism to the forefront,” says Brašiškė.
The exhibition Eyes and Fields. Rose Lowder and Kazimiera Zimblytė will be on view at the MO Museum until May 3.
