“Woman’s Image in Graphic Art of Kaunas Art School”

The year 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Kaunas Art School. On this occasion, the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art presents the exhibition “Woman’s Image in Graphic Art of Kaunas Art School”.

The exhibition features over a hundred of works by the school teachers and students of the interwar period, which reflect the artistic treatment of a woman in their drawings, etchings, and illustrations. Almost all outstanding Lithuanian artists did favour the image of a woman in their creation. The examples selected for this exhibition reflect different from the artistic point of view treatment and reveal general tendencies in conveying the attitude towards women in inter-war Lithuania, the ability to capture a woman’s being through unique graphic means.

After reviewing the artistic legacy of that time, it became evident that the image of a woman in graphic art usually disclosed the established outlook as regards gender roles – that of a mother, a lover, a wife, a woman working in the countryside or engaged in everyday activities. Additionally, the sacred portrait of a woman, exotic image or a heroine of a fairy-tale were popular, as well. These images manifest themselves in figurative compositions, portraits, pictures of the nudes. A modern depiction of women was more often conveyed through the stylistic interpretations of modernist movements in art.

The exhibition features the works by the most renowed representatives of Lithuanian classical art – Adomas Galdikas, Kajetonas Sklėrius, Vladas Didžiokas, Marcė Katiliūtė, Domicelė Tarabildaitė-Tarabildienė, Vanda Pazukaitė, Liuda Vaineikytė, Paulius Augius-Augustinavičius, Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas, Vytautas Jurkūnas, Jonas Kuzminskis, Viktoras Petravičius, Antanas Gudaitis, Juozas Mikėnas, Telesforas Kulakauskas, Liudvikas Strolis, Jonas Steponavičius, Telesforas Valius and others.

In the main, the exhibition is comprised of the artworks accessed in the graphic art collection of M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art. Alongside, the exhibits from the Lithuanian National Museum of Art are a significant supplement.

Curator of the exhibition: Aušra Vasiliauskienė

Consultant: Regina Urbonienė

Partners of the exhibition: Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Vytautas Magnus University