This is the artist's statement –


Vladas Vildziunas – Lithuania

The original concept for this figurative sculpture was a lady walking in a park in solitude with breezes adding movement to her garments. In 1972, the model this sculpture was based on acquired the name “Barbora,” a Lithuania queen, who became synonymous with an independent, free and autonomous nation.

As often with artist's statements, there's a slight ambiguity. By "model," does Vildziunas mean an earlier version of the statue? Or does he mean the woman he spotted in the park, a vision of swirling skirts? And how did Barbora "become synonymous with [a free] … nation"? The latter is indeed a test case, if you like, of the tendency of politicians, especially nationalists, to hijack the arts for their own purposes. One might guess that Vildziunas prefers his original inspiration to the later imposition, to clear the air, as it were.

Some of the ambiguities are resolved by a quick internet search, for the results of which see the comments on the next shot of the statue.

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This one, with the light behind it, is much more blue and grey in tone. The whole statue is about 10' tall, and looking at the marks on the surface of the metal, one would guess that it has been fabricated mainly out of steel plates that have been bent, then hammered into shape, and welded together.

There is a Lithuanian Wikipedia entry on the sculptor, which lists him as a "social activist" as well as an artist, but I'm not sure what that really means in a post-Cold-War context; he's also listed as having founded something called the Jerusalem Art Institute in Lithuania, so perhaps all "activist" really means is that under the Soviet regime he was a Jewish refusenik.

The Wikipedia entry also lists a sculpture by him called "Barbara" with a creation date of 1982, not 1972, as in the artist's statement. There's a picture of it here –

Barbara statue in Vilnius

– and as you can see, it's exactly the same statute, except a good deal bigger, and with three extra decades of weathering; not clear from the picture whether it's stone or steel, but seems little doubt that this is the "model" he's referring to.

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Wikipedia has a few notes on Barbara of Lithuania (real name Barbara Radziwill, 1520-51), who was briefly married to the Polish king Sigismund II – they both died relatively quickly. Find it here –

Barbara of Lithuania

But I can't see anything in the story that would lead necessarily to making her into some sort of symbol of freedom from oppression (any more than Romeo and Juliet), yet such she apparently became. The Wikipedia article lists a Lithuanian play, from 1972 (by Juozas Grusas) which, "during the Soviet period … was very popular for its sense of intellectual resistance to the … regime." This may account for the 1972 date in Vildziunas' statement, as he is remembering the play, rather than the date at which he produced the first, monumental version of this work.

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A close-up of the top of the Barbora statue, giving a good impression of its Futurist lineage; in fact, the whole thing looks very Marinetti. The plain steel surface acts to reflect back the light ambiance of the surrounding environment, and, since it was close to sundown, the surface has a slight orange glow. Background has been re-depthed with a gradient blur.

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The back of the statue, showing repeated forms that might be taken to suggest either flex joints in a suit of armour, or flounces in the sleeves of a dress. The light also shows up the marks of the artist's working, particularly the tool used to smooth away any burrs on the surface resulting from the pieces being welded together.

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