Kostas Dereskevicius was born in 1937, Antakalnis village, Prienai District, Lithuania. In 1960-1967, the artist studied at Vilnius Institute of Fine Arts. In 1976 he started working at the Department of Painting of Vilnius Institute of Fine Arts. In 1993, the painter was conferred a PhD degree. Kostas Dereskevicius is a member of Lithuanian Artists’ Association since 1974.

Paintings

Kostas Dereskevicius has painted a number of landscapes, still-lives and portraits. Originality of the painter lies in his specific and authentic style. Having no pure genre, Kostas Dereskevicius classifies his key themes as “girls” , “window”, “travelling” or “the fragment of transportation modes”.

In his early works, the motive of the painting is seen from the distance. For that reason, the figure forms just a little part of the picture. The silhouette of the human being, his character, gestures - everything that helps to identify a friend plays a significant role in Kostas Dereskevicius’ creative work. Painting in these works is dense and expressionistic.

In 1975, “girl’s”, “woman’s” themes appear in Kostas Dereskevicius paintings. During this period, the painting of the artist is based on smoothness, plane patches of colours, the simplicity of compositional scheme. All Kostas Dereskevicius’ creative work is full of unusual photographic elements. The painter lays emphasis on the faces of his characters in order to stress their individuality. While looking into Kostas Dereskevicius’ paintings you can feel the influence of a “charming moment”. The painter is open-minded to innovations and takes into account one-day signs of fashion. Fashion attributes help him to disclose characters, sometimes to mock at them.

Women in Kostas Dereskevicius paintings are of two kinds. They are very fleshly, dynamic and full of ease. The painter distinguishes the specific genre of “women” theme – “women with attributes”. Women are strongly connected with various items, clothes. Moreover, it is hard to recognise Kostas Dereskevicius’ women without attributes.

The painter shows particular attention to a female body. He boldly and distinctively divides a woman’s body into parts. Sometimes the artist shows fragmentary and, traditionally, not most important parts of woman’s body. The mirror of a woman’s soul for the painter is her legs or their fragment and breasts.

Besides “meat” characters, Kostas Dereskevicius paints ephemeral pictures of human being. The figures of his characters remind shadows glimpsing from a dusty bus. These pictures are ghostly, unreal with fragile reflections.

Being extremely distinctive and original, Kostas Dereskevicius sees nature as electric or telegraph poles, road signs. His landscape usually reminds technical civilisation attributes, which singles it out from the traditional landscapes of other Lithuanian painters.

Kostas Dereskevicius brought the signs of blocks into Lithuanian art. He is interested not in everlasting objects, but in ironic daily life with banal faces and routine grimaces.

It is obvious, that Kostas Dereskevicius is searching for laconic, most simple objects for his painting. In his imagination these pictures turn into abstractions. Kostas Dereskevicius’ creative works are based on the roughness of the coat, coarseness and embossed texture. The artist continues playing compositional game watching the hummock of geometrical and organic forms.

Exhibitions

Kostas Dereskevicius has held 8 personal exhibitions. From 1966, the painter takes part in various exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad – Russia (Moscow), Sweden (Göteborg, Stockholm), France, England (Manchester), Latvia (Riga), Norway (Bergen), etc.

Collections

Museums and private collectors from Lithuania and foreign countries have some of the painter’s works in their collections.