On the Shore

Robert Bluj, habilitated doctor in fine arts is an artist who has won critical acclaim as well as public praise. The main subject of Robert's work is the human being, because, as the artist himself says, all art is by, for and about the human being. The people depicted in the artist's paintings are transformed into actors, to whom the author, as a director, gives new roles on the canvas. The artist reveals that he does not undress the human being out of curiosity, but in order to draw him out of his social shell and give him a new role. Moreover, the absence of decoration, the absence of the mark of time and place, means that the modern man is no different from the one who lived a thousand years ago. The blue replacing the natural hair is also another theatrical element.

"When I paint, I am like a director creating a plot; on the one hand, the model in the situation I have staged seems to become a completely different character, partly losing their identity, while on the other hand, with their plasticity, their physical and intellectual contribution, they become an integral part of the work. Therefore, my work does not "document" a person, but rather helps the invisible states or personal sides of a person to emerge. I believe that the viewer is also drawn into deeper sensations by this authenticity of the person, intertwined with the staging," says the artist.

As far as technique is concerned, although such nuances can only be seen in person, the texture of his works is very important to the artist, and not  the entire surface of a painting is covered with the same amount of paint. Robert works with a thin layer technique, so these nuances are very subtle, but the thickest layer of paint is applied in the lightest, brightest areas of the painting - in this way, the artist uses his brush to draw the objects as if from a dream and into our dimension.

Last but not least, we must mention that Robert takes the greatest care and attention not only to the painting itself, but also to its preparation. He says that for him, stretching the linen canvas, priming it, sometimes even mixing the paint himself, is a meditation, and that these preparations strongly determine the quality of the end result. Moreover, the artist has discovered his own unique painting technique of mixing oil paints with beeswax, which removes the glossiness of the paint and prevents the reflections from interfering with the viewing of the whole work at once.

Although Robert is better known as a figurative painter, here you will also be able to see his cityscapes, which are dominated by images painted during his visit to New York, as well as motifs from his native Vilnius. The charm of these works lies in artist's ability to see the city and the places we have walked hundreds of times in a new and original way. To depict it without being too sweet and banal. The well-known places of the Old Town of Vilnius speak in a new way on Robert's canvases.

Many of his works have gone into private collections in Lithuania, Poland, the USA, Austria, China and England.

Robert Bluj, born in 1970 in Vilnius in Lithuania. In the years 1992-1997 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, at the Department of Painting. He graduated with a degree of Master of Arts in 2014. He received his PhD in fine arts at the same Academy of Fine Arts in 2014. In 2020 he was awarded the habilitation degree in fine arts in the area of conservation and restoration of plastic arts, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 2000 he started a studio of drawing and painting where he has classes with children, young people and adults on drawing, painting, basics of composition and perspective. Each year, the studio organizes workshops for young people and open air painting events. Students who finished a course in Bluj’s school continue their studies at many higher education institutions in Lithuania and other countries of the European Union.

Since 2002 he has been member of the Lithuanian Painters’ Association. In 2005 by the decision of the Lithuanian Minister of Culture (No. 2V-520) he was granted the status of creator of art. In 2008 he was a curator of an exhibition of works by painters of Polish origin, members of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association. This exhibition was organized as part of the World Congress of Wilniuki. In 2011 Bluj was member of the jury of the competition for a “Czesław Miłosz Poster” organized by the Polish Institute in Vilnius on the occasion the Miłosz Year. In 2009 he was awarded a Medal of the Union of Lithuanian Poles for his efforts in propagating Polish values in Lithuania and a Medal and an Honorary Diploma on the I International Exhibition of Painting and Graphic Art “Colours of Poland in Rome”, which took place in Cascina Farsetti.

In 2013, President of the Republic of Poland Bronisław Komorowski awarded Bluj the Knight Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for his outstanding contribution to the promotion of Polish culture and his achievement in artistic work.