Art

Finding Lithuania in Paris

Antanas Žmuidzinavičius.

Diana Gudaitis Barbera. While wandering through the beautiful Impressionist galleries at Musée d’Orsay in Paris this spring, I was thrilled to discover the museum hosting a very special exhibition “Wild Souls. Symbolism in the Baltic States.” As an American artist whose father was Lithuanian, I was intrigued and excited by …

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Paulina Mongirdaitė Lithuania’s First Woman Photographer

By Jolanta Klietkutė. Paulina Mongirdaitė was born about 1865 in Raseiniai county, in the province of Kaunas. Her parents, Sofija (née Griškevičiūtė) and Mečislovas Mongirdas, came from a noble bajoras (boyar) family. Perhaps due to poor record-keeping in the upheavals following the 1863 uprising, her exact birth date and place are …

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Borisovas: Views of East Prussia

By Kazys Almenas. The watercolors of Romanas Borisovas are beautiful. Works of art do not require any additional justification. However, I am certain that after viewing them, many will experience something more. Let’s call it the breath of passing history, or possibly an intimation of the vulnerability of the works …

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Vytautas K. Jonynas in America

V.K. Jonynas with section of mosaic-bas relief, for the cafeteria at Rikers Island, NY. (LRSC Archive)

By Gediminas Indreika. Over the many years of creative work in America, Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas decorated more than 80 buildings, most of which were sacred spaces. His decorative elements were renowned for their originality and imagination. Their expression in stained glass, sculpture and mosaics conferred a distinctiveness and unique character …

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A cultural oasis in Manhattan

Alliance members.

Founded in 1886, the Lithuanian Alliance of America, (LAA) the oldest continuously operating Lithuanian organization in the world, has a new lease on life as it expands its multifaceted activities promoting Lithuanian educational and heritage programs. Organized as a fraternal insurance organization, it had over 20,000 members and 300 lodges …

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Balys Buračas —Ethnographic Photographer : Illuminating the spirit of Lithuania

by Stanislovas Žvirgždas. Balys Buračas (1897-1972) was a photographer who created a vast archive of visual memory of Lithuanian villages and ethnic culture. He was a chronicler, saving the remnants of a life that was fast disappearing from people’s memories. Many post-war Lithuanian art photographers have long acknowledged that they grew …

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Nature swaddled in art, poetry expressed in blades of grass: folk artist Gintvilė Giedraitienė and her žolinukai

by Vereta Rupeikaitė. Those who have had the childhood experience of sleeping on a bed of hay will never forget the wonderful feeling or the sweet aroma. Such scents have shadowed folk artist and folklorist Gintvile Giedraitiene her entire life; and for the past seventeen years, hay and other grasses …

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THE MAKING OF THE INVISIBLE FRONT

By VIDA KUPRYS. Lithuania’s guerilla resistance against the Soviet occupation was a decade-long secret war which lasted from 1944 to 1953. From its very inception it was a tragic confrontation. Hope-filled dreams of liberation by the West eventually turned to resignation. The wonted cavalry just never arrived. Images of mutilated corpses …

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AN AMERICAN WHO WRITES SHORT STORIES ABOUT LITHUANIA

By Daiva Markelis. Wendell Mayo, a native of Corpus Christi, texas, is an accomplished american writer. over one hundred of his short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, including Yale Review, Harvard Review, Missouri Review, Boulevard, Prism International, and others. he is the author of four short story collections. …

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