THE EXHIBITION “POST-ABSTRACTION“ BY THE WORLD-FAMOUS ARTIST BARBARA KASTEN

On 16 July 2026, Thursday, at 6:00 p.m., the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art (V. Putvinskio St. 55, Kaunas) presents the exhibition “Post-Abstraction” of the artworks by Barbara Kasten, an American artist of Lithuanian origin, one of the most prominent figures among contemporary abstractionists. This is the first large-scale solo exhibition of the artist in Lithuania.

From textile to the architecture of light

Barbara Kasten belongs to a generation of artists who expanded the concept of photography and transformed it into a sphere of experimentation with space, light, and perception. Her studies in painting, sculpture, and textile design, as well as the ideas of the modernist art movement Bauhaus grew into a signifanct foundation for her work.

A decisive turning point in the artist’s career happened in 1971, when she won a Fulbright-Hays scholarship and moved to Poznań to study under one of the most significant European artists of the 20th century Magdalena Abakanowicz. While working in her studio, Kasten had an opportunity to reconsider the relationship between sculpture, space, and materiality. It was during this period that her artistic expression began to take shape, with light, colour, and space as its central elements.

The Bauhaus tradition and the ideas of László Moholy-Nagy had a significant influence on her work. Upon returning to the United States, Kasten transformed photography into an experimental medium in which she creates meticulously arranged visual compositions using mirrors, geometric forms, colour, and light. Later, after moving to New York, she devoted increasing attention to architecture, and her work came to blend Bauhaus experiments, Constructivism, and the influence of postmodern architecture.

“Barbara Kasten is a pioneer in every medium she has explored and one of the most consistent experimenters in contemporary art. Her work continues the tradition of female artists who redefine the very concept of the medium itself,” – emphasizes the exhibition curator Agnieszka Pindera.

The exhibition “Post-abstraction“

Featuring approximately 80 artworks, including photographs, sculptures, and installations, this exhibition represents nearly six decades of B. Kasten’s career. They offer a close-up look at the evolution of the artist’s consistent explorations of light, colour, texture, and perception.

The title of the exhibition refers to Kasten’s dialogue with the history of the avant-garde, Constructivism, modernist and postmodernist architecture. The artist does not imitate the concept of abstraction, she modifies and tests it so that to relate it to the viewer’s experience. Her works combine photography, sculpture, architecture, and installation, thus a viewer becomes an active participant in the image.

In Kasten’s work, light is not a means of illuminating something, it becomes the material itself. Reflections in mirrors, colour filters, and geometric structures create visual situations in which the boundaries between real and imagined space, and between seeing and perceiving, disappear.

Lithuanian origin

Born in Chicago in 1936 to a family of Lithuanian émigrés, the artist learned more about her Lithuanian roots as an adult. After her father’s death, she visited Lithuania with her mother, where she met relatives living near Panevėžys and got a firsthand knowledge of her family’s history.

“What interests me most is my roots. I want to understand the atmosphere before me, the cultural environment that I didn’t really have a chance to experience,” says the artist.

Today, Barbara Kasten’s works have entered the collections of the world’s most important museums – the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Tate Modern in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. As for the exhibition in Kaunas, it holds a personal significance for the artist as it marks a symbolic return to the country where the story of her family began.

Symbolc return

The Lithuanian people had a chance to be acquainted with Barbara Kasten’s work in 1995, when the Centre of Contemporary Art in Vilnius hosted the photography exhibition “Barbara Kasten. 1982–1994”. The exhibition “Post-Abstraction”, as a matter of fact, is the first large-scale retrospective of the artist’s work in Lithuania.

The exhibition comes to Kaunas from the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, where it was presented as the first solo exhibition of Barbara Kasten’s work on this scale in this part of Europe. Presented at the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, the exhibition brings together the artist’s personal history, European experiences, and global creative background into a cohesive narrative about light,space, and the construction of an image.

Curator of the exhibition Agnieszka Pindera
The exhibition was prepared in collaboration with Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
Partners: Galerie Kadel Willborn, Philara Collection, The BlueKnowledge Art Collection
The exhibition was funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
Supporter: The Polish Institute in Vilnius
Media partner: LRT, Reklamos Arka

This is a public event; filming and photography may take place. By participating in the event, you agree to appear in event photos and videos, and you are informed that these photos and videos may be published publicly.