Lithuania

Cities

Vilnius, Kaunas

Precedessors

Artists

• Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, painter and composer. In 1904-1909 explored the analogies between music and the visual arts. He draws on Lithuanian folklore, Oriental mysticism, and uses more abstract forms than many of his Russian contemporaries. [1]
• Vytautas Kairiūkštis, painter and graphic artist of Lithuanian origin, creator of photomontages, art theoretician and critic, educator, representative of the artistic avant-garde of the 1920s. [2] [3] [4]
• Keturi vėjai (Four Winds), literary movement
• Dailės draugija (the Art Society), *1907 in Vilnius. It organises 8 exhibitions before WW1. Its members include Lithuanians, Poles, Jews, and Russians who act as a conduit of information about Futurism, Cubism and Expressionism to local artists in Vilnius.

Events

• 20 May - 20 June 1923, The New Art Exhibition in Vilnius, organised by Władysław Strzemiński and Vytautas Kairiūkštis, at Corso Cinema on A. Mickiewicz Avenue. Meeting ground for Russian and Western European avant-garde movements. One of the first manifestations of constructivist art outside Russia. Works included painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, scenography, and printing. Cubist, Constructivist, and Suprematist compositions predominated. Its catalogue includes Kairiūkštis’ constructivist manifesto. The participants of the exhibition later become the members of the Blok group (Grupa Kubistów, Konstruktywistów i Suprematystów Blok) which holds exhibitions in Riga, Bucharest, Brussels and Warsaw. [5]

Writings

• In 1913, the Vilnius daily Przegląd Wileński (No. 48-49) reprinted F. T. Marinetti’s Manifesto of Futurism.

Education

• Vilnius University reopens in 1918 as the Stefan Batory University. Its department of fine arts is directed by Ferdynand Ruszczyc and includes leading figures from Poland’s avant-garde (Zbigniew Pronaszko, Benedykt Kubicki).
• Lithuanian School of Art established in 1921. As well as teaching it awards grants to more talented students to train in western European art centres

Literature

• Juozas Pivoriunas, "A Lithuanian Individualist. The Art of M. K. Čiurlionis", Lituanus, Volume 11, No.4 - Winter 1965. [6]
• Viktoras Liutkus, "Lithuanian Art and the Avant-Garde of the 1920s: Vytautas Kairiūkštis and the New Art Exhibition in Vilnius", Lituanus, 2008. [7]
• Viktoras Liutkus, "Vytauto Kairiūkščio (1890–1961) suprematistinė kūryba ir fotomontažai", Menotyra, 2008. [8]
• Viktoras Liutkus, "Vytautas Kairiūkštis and Avant-garde Cinema", 2010. [9] partial translation
• Vida Mažrimienė, "Vytautas Kairiūkštis: In the Field of Radical Changes", 2010. [10] partial translation
• http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/comm_0588-8018_2006_num_79_1_2418

Experimental film

• Jonas Mekas, emigrée (1944 Germany, since 1949 USA) [11]
• Adolfas Mekas, Jonas' brother, emigrée (1944 Germany, since 1949 USA). [[12]]
• Artūras Barysas (Baras) documentary film on Barysas by Aleksandr Jegorov [13]

Performance art

George Maciunas [14], Vytautas Landsbergis [15], Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas [16]

Events

• Fluxus concerts in 1966 [17]

Electroacoustic and experimental music

• Gedrius Kuprevichius
• Mindaugas Urbaitis
• Arturas Medonis
• Birute Sinkevichiute
• Linas Paulauskas

Literature

• Mark Rais, "Some Notes about Soviet Computer Music", Leonardo Vol. 24, No. 5 (1991), pp. 535-539. [18]

Video art

Equipment

• VCRs were availabe on the black market by the late 1970s. In 1986 a VCR cost the equivalent of 17 months average wage (Mark R. Levy, The VCR Age)

Artists

• 1990s-2000s: Deimantas Narkevicius, Arturas Raila, Gintaras Makarevicius, Arturas Raila, Regle Rakauskaite, Gediminas Urbonas, Nomeda Urboniene

Exhibitions

• French-Baltic Video Festival, Vilnius, 1994, 1995.
• Twilight. Curated by Deimantas Narkevicius, Kestutis Kuizinas, and Evaldas Stankevicius, Contemporary Art Center Vilnius, 1998.
• Lithuanian Art 1989-1999. The Ten Years. Curated by Kestutis Kuizinas, Raimundas Malasauskas, Deimantas Narkevicius, Evaldas Stankevicius, Jonas Valatkevicius, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, 1999.
• The Others are Me. Social Instinct in Lithuanian Art. Curated by Maria Anna Potocka, Gallery of Contemporary Art BUNKIER SZTUKI, Krakow, 2004.

Literature

• Renata Dubinskaitė, "Artist Roles in Lithuanian Video Art (1990-2003)", Athena: Philosophical Studies. Issue: 3, 2008: 156-172. [19]
• Renata Dubinskaitė, "Experiments of documentary cinema language in Lithuanian video art", Menotyra, vol 15, Nr 2, 2008, pp 40-49. [20]
• Natalie Musteata, "Wired to History: Romanian and Lithuanian Video Art Post-1989", PhD Program in Art History, CUNY Graduate Center, 2010. [21]

New media art, Media culture

Literature

• Renata Šukaitytė, "New Media Art in Lithuania", Athena: Philosophical Studies (3/2008). [22], [23]
• Renata Šukautytė, "Media art as a scientific-experimental space. The case of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian art in the 20th (2nd part)–21st centuries", Menotyra, vol 15, Nr 2, 2008, pp 50-61. [24]

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