Vytautas Kairiūkštis

Vytautas Kairiūkštis ( Russian : Витаутас Кайрюкштис ; born November 14, 1890 in Seiny , Poland ; † June 13, 1961 in Vilnius ) was a Lithuanian painter and art teacher.

Life

Kairiūkštis' grave in Vilnius

Kairiūkštis grew up in a family of teachers. From 1910 to 1914 he studied at the drawing school of Ivan Trutnew in Vilnius. In the following two years he studied with Konstantin Juon in Moscow . From 1913 to 1916 he studied law at Moscow State University . Further studies followed at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture from 1917 to 1918.

From 1918 to 1919 he was responsible for art education in the field of popular education in Voronezh . In 1919 he was drafted into the Red Army and served in the 5th Army in Irkutsk .

In 1921 he settled in Vilnius. Here he taught fine arts at various medium-sized educational institutions. He organized exhibitions of local avant-garde artists and took part in the activities of Polish artist groups. In the period from 1925 to 1929 he made himself acquainted with modern art movements in France , Germany , Denmark and Italy .

From 1923 to 1930, Kairiūkštis headed painting studios in Vilnius. In 1931 he finished his studies as an external student at the University of Stefan Batori in Vilnius. From 1937 he taught in Kaunas . From 1940 to 1944 he worked here at the Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis Museum. From 1944 to 1951 he taught at the Institute for Decorative Applied Arts in Kaunas. In 1952, after his retirement, he settled in Vilnius, where he died in 1961.

Create

Vytautas Kairiūkštis created portraits , landscapes and still lifes (mainly in oil and pastel ). Some of his early works can be assigned to Cubism and Constructivism , although his landscapes are clearly influenced by Impressionism . Exhibitions of his works took place in Vilnius, Kaunas, Riga and Tallinn . He also wrote a monograph on the Lithuanian watercolor painter Kajetonas Sklerius, as well as a number of articles on art theory.

Works (selection)

• Concert in the café (Концерт в кафе) (1921)
• Beaches (Пляжы) (1928)
• Portrait of Jonas Basanawitschjus (Йонас Басанавичюс) (1922)
• Cubist Self-Portrait (Кубистический автопортрет) (1923)
• Evening in Irkutsk (Вечер в Иркутске) (1920)