Elona Lubytė (PDF)
https://doi.org/10.53631/DIS/2017.8.7
In Soviet Lithuania, as in the entire Soviet Union, gathering of artists in informal groups was not tolerated. However, informal communities of like-minded colleagues would assemble in private spaces, artists’ homes and studios, where creative and political freedom goals were pursued. The article discusses the history of the Vilnius Jeruzalė Sculpture Garden, the activities of its sculptors from 1962 to 1990, and the creative pursuits of late modernism and post-modernism, which were manifested in the environment of socialist realism.
In 1962, the family of sculptor Vladas Vildžiūnas (1932–2013) and printmaker Marija Ladigaitė rented a part of the house in Jeruzalė, the suburb of Vilnius with nationalised Polish villas from the interwar period. Their home became an informal gathering place for the sculptors’ community in the Jeruzalė Garden. Thanks to Vildžiūnas’s support for young talent, active efforts and diplomacy, in 1970, the Executive Committee of the City of Vilnius decided to transfer a plot of an old fruit garden in Jeruzalė to the Art Foundation of the Lithuanian SSR. The plot was assigned to build a temporary sculpture studio. During 1972 and 1973, Gediminas Karalius and Petras Mazūras built the first temporary studios in the Jeruzalė Garden. The construction of studios in the Jeruzalė Garden continued in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1977, Vildžiūnas became the chairman of the Sculpture Department of the Artists’ Union of the Lithuanian SSR. He sought to unite the forces of his guild and, alongside, present the newest works by the Jeruzalė sculptors. Vildžiūnas also initiated the First Exhibition of Medals and Small-Scale Sculptures in 1979 at the House of Art Exhibitions and the Republican Sculpture Exhibition in 1983 at the Art Exhibition Palace. During 1984 and 1985, thanks to Vildžiūnas’s efforts, an exhibition of small-scale sculptures and drawings by the ‘sixsome’ of Jeruzalė Garden sculptors was held in the Gallery of Soviet Art of the State Art Museum of the Lithuanian SSR. In 1978–1979, shows of abstract drawings and paintings of minimalist style by textile artist Kazimiera Zimblytė that were not accepted into official exhibitions were held in the Jeruzalė Garden. A new type of artist was forming in the Jeruzalė Garden who, from the beginning (sketch) to the end, realised the creative idea independently without the help of the State Art House and the censorship of the clients.
Keywords: sculptor studio, Vladas Vildžiūnas, Artists’ Union, exhibition, State Art Museum