This is the first major presentation of the work of Lithuanian artist Jurgis Mikševičius (1923-2014), who worked in Australia, in Lithuania. On the occasion of the artist's 100th anniversary, his creative phenomenon was widely celebrated in Australia, with a number of solo exhibitions in Lura, Manly and Bathurst. In order to introduce the Lithuanian art community to the creative legacy of this unique Lithuanian-Australian artist, the National Art Museum of Lithuania presents a representative and valuable collection of 77 paintings and graphic works, as well as a part of his personal archive, formed by the artist's daughters, Carolyn Leigh and Helena Miksevicius. The exhibition is complemented by 3 works from the collections of the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art.
Jurgis Mikševičius was born on 8 March 1923 in Šiauliai, in the family of the engineer Medardas and the physician Elena. In 1940 he graduated from the Aušra Gymnasium for Boys in Kaunas. In 1941, when his family left Lithuania, he studied in Berlin, and from 1946 he studied architecture at the Technical University of Darmstadt. She attended Prof. Paul Thesing's studio at the Darmstadt Art Workshop, where she was educated according to the principles of the Bauhaus school. She studied colour theory, the basics of abstraction and design. The years of study in Germany matured Mikševičius as an artist, formed a system of aesthetic values, and developed his artistic taste.
In 1948 the artist emigrated to Australia. In 1949, he moved to Canberra to work in construction, initially on a two-year public works contract in Bathurst (New South Wales). In the same year, he was the first Lithuanian to become a member of the Canberra Society of Artists and was active in exhibitions. In 1953, he moved to Sydney, where he was active in the Contemporary Art Society and held art exhibitions. He was one of the founders of the Baltic artists' group Six Directions (1956). He held joint exhibitions with Lithuanian artists Algirdas Šimkūnas, Henrikas Šalkauskas and others. From 1961 he worked as an art teacher at the Birongs, Beverly Hills and Asquith girls' schools. During his studies and later, while preparing for his teaching career, Mikševičius was interested in religious and philosophical texts of Hinduism and Indian art. He travelled to India several times (1978, 1982, 1987) and practised Buddhism. Mikševičius retired from public artistic life around 1978, but he did not abandon his work and continued to paint until the last days of his life.
The artist's artistic legacy includes landscapes, portraits, still lifes, abstract compositions, drawings. The paintings express an intense emotional state, akin to the work of German expressionists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Eric Haeckel. The search for new colour harmony and modern expression brings him closer to Paul Klee's abstracts and avant-garde experiments, while his meditative moods bring him into contact with the Indian mystical practice. The artist's multifaceted oeuvre combines the painful European experience of war, his love of the Australian landscape, his warm and sensitive relationship with human beings, and a dimension of the sacred.
The artist died at his home in Bensville on 23 July 2014. His ashes are scattered around his home.
J.Mikševičius' works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, the National Art Museum of Lithuania, the National M. K.
Curators and coordinators of the exhibition are Ilona Mažeikienė, Regina Urbonienė, Carolyn Leigh. Rūta Mozūraitė
Exhibition designer Rūta Mozūraitė
Exhibition architect Austė Kuliešiūtė-Šemetė
The exhibition is organized by the Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum of the National Palace of Culture of Lithuania
Partners. Lithuanian Lithuanian Art Museum, Lithuanian Community of Australia, Lithuanian Community of the World
Sponsors.
