Museum of Applied Arts and Design launches a retrospective of the artist Stasys Ušinskas to mark his 120th birth anniversary
Exhibition opening at 5.30 pm on Thursday, 17 April, 2025
At 5.30 pm Thursday, 17 April, the Museum of Applied Arts and Design of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art (Arsenalo St 3a, Vilnius) invites to the opening of Stasys Ušinskas’s retrospective Stasys Ušinskas: the Iceberg of Lithuanian Modernism. The exhibition celebrating the artist’s 120th birth anniversary, will feature Ušinskas’s paintings, stained-glass pieces and their preparatory sketches, marionettes and their X-ray images, stage set and costume designs, the puppet animation film The Dream of the Fatty. The exhibition will be expanded by archival photographic images and a documentary on the stained-glass windows created for the churches in Lithuania. The exhibition will be on until 14 September.
“I would call the opening of this long and thoroughly prepared exhibition in our museum an event of national importance. Stasys Ušinskas not only truly deserves a mention alongside such celebrated Lithuanian artists as Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Petras Kalpokas or Justinas Vienožinskis, but is indisputably a figure of international scale, as witnessed by his awards from the important Paris and New York exhibitions. As the title of the exhibition proclaims, Ušinskas’s artistic legacy is a like a giant iceberg of which we mostly see a small part only, here, by contrast, the visitors will get a unique opportunity to experience its entire spectrum from painting to stained-glass, from a monumental panel painting to fantastic marionette puppets, from animation to decorative glass pieces of stunning beauty. For the coming five months, the “iceberg” will emerge before our eyes in its entire majesty,” Dr Arūnas Gelūnas, director general of the LNMA, says.
“Today one of the most-renowned Lithuanian 20th C. artists Stasys Ušinskas can be called “one-man orchestra”. Stained-glass and graphic arts, painting, stage set and costume design – these are the fields, which profited from a glaring contribution of this unique and innovating personality skilfully blending the Lithuanian school of art with the avant-garde achievements in Western Europe. The title of the exhibition Stasys Ušinskas: the Iceberg of Lithuanian Modernism straightforwardly encapsulates the nature of this versatile artist, without prioritizing any of the fields that Ušinskas’s talent touched upon. We hope the exhibition will be interesting to all of our visitors; for some, it will evoke nostalgic memories, others will gain new experiences or will be surprised by an unexpected encounter with one of the most interesting and prominent Lithuanian artists,” Džiuljeta Žiugždienė, director of the Museum of Applied Arts and Design of the LNMA says.
The creative practice ranging from canvas to the stage
Professor Stasys Ušinskas (1905–1974), one of the most renowned 20th C. – Lithuanian art figures of exceptional talent – a prolific painter, graphic artist, stained-glass and decorative glass expert, stage set designer, and art pedagogue – was inspired by Cubism and Constructivism. Having studied under Fernand Léger and the Ukrainian-Jewish stage set designer Alexandra Exter, Ušinskas discovered his own distinct stylistic trend. Among the artist’s signature works are his puppet marionettes designed for the first Lithuanian professional puppet production Silvestras Dūdelė, a play by Antanas Gustaitis. The marionettes appeared also in the first Lithuanian sound puppet animation film The Dream of the Fatty. The inter-war Lithuanian drama theatre is unthinkable without the artist. He collaborated with the State Theatre designing stage sets and character costumes; in the 1937 Paris World’s Fair, his stage set designs (sketches) for Shakespear’s Twelfth Night and Balys Dvarionas’s ballet The Matchmaking (produced in 1933) were awarded the Gold Medal. Having perfected the stained-glass making technology, he is considered the father of contemporary Lithuanian stained-glass.
The opportunity to see the previously unexhibited historical paintings
Visitors of Stasys Ušinskas: the Iceberg of Lithuanian Modernism will be offered an opportunity to see some rarely-exhibited decorative glass pieces, the impressive panel painting, and two previously unexhibited historical canvases.
Lithuania (1939), a 24-part tempera painting and wax-relief panel of an impressive, 33 m2 size, was a commission by the State of Lithuanian. It was presented at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
The 1429 Congress of Lutsk (Vytautas the Great in the Castle of Lutsk) (1939), one of the historical canvases, depicts the gathering that decided the coronation question of Vytautas the Great. Centrally in the painting are situated the Holy Emperor and King Sigismund of Hungary and Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas. On the left in the foreground are Jogaila, King of Poland with his wife Sophia, and the Bishop of Kraków Zbigniew Oleśnicki.
The painting Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas Striking with His Sword Against the Kremlin Gate in Moscow in 1369, illustrating the power of the duke in expanding the lands of Lithuania and its influence, was exhibited in the Honour Hall of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and won the Grand Prix.
The exhibition Stasys Ušinskas: the Iceberg of Lithuanian Modernism will be accompanied by open lectures and an educational-familiarization programme, including the LNMA-hosted education events, special creative workshops and presentations with invited lecturers. The exhibition will be on until 14 September.
At 11 am Thursday, 17 April, the exhibition opening day, the Museum of Applied Arts and Design holds a press conference, featuring Prof. Dr Ramutė Rachlevičiūtė, exhibition curator; Džiuljeta Žiugždienė, project leader and director of the Museum of Applied Arts and Design of the LNMA; exhibition designer Marius Žalneravičius; Dr Žydrūnas Mirinavičius, stained-glass artist and historian; Rimas Driežis, stage director and artist at the puppet theatre, and Stasys Ušinskas’s daughter Rasa Ušinskaitė.
Project leader Džiuljeta Žiugždienė
Curator dr. Ramutė Rachlevičiūtė
Architect Ūla Žebrauskaitė-Malinauskė
Designer Marius Žalneravičius
Architect-coordinator Eglė Jagminė
Coordinator Monika Gedrimaitė
Light artist by Mantas Markevičius
Translator Irena Jomantienė
Partners: Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Film Museum, M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, National Museum of Lithuania, Vilnius Theatre Lėlė, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE, Lithuanian Central State Archives, Lithuanian Literature and Art Archives, Vytautas the Great War Museum
Special thanks to: Mažvydas Truklickas, Andrius Melys, Dainius Markevičius, Tomas Orlovas, Salvijus Misevičius, Lukas Narvilas, Vadim Šamkov, Tadas Blėdis, Jūratė Senvaitienė, Lina Jurnienė, Silvija Lukošienė, Algimantas Vaineikis, Rūta Kasiulytė, Virginija Liūgienė, Tomas Ručys, Rasa Bieliauskaitė-Mikolaitienė, Lina Ona Adomaitytė, Gediminas Mikelaitis, Ilona Čiužauskaitė, Indrė Polimaitienė, Gustė Gulevaitė, Skirmantė Kvietkauskienė, Irena Aleksienė, Antanas Lukšėnas, Rima Rutkauskienė, Gražina Gurnevičiūtė, Jonas Aleksa, Vladislavas Kislovskis, Žydrūnas Mirinavičius
Project organizer Museum of Applied Arts and Design, the LNMA
Project funded by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
Information partners: LRT, „JCDecaux Lietuva“
Supporter BN Tekstilė
- Purchase an e-ticket for this exhibition
- Book a guided tour by phone +370 5 212 1813, +370 5 262 8080
- Plan your visit to the Museum of Applied Arts And Design
3A Arsenalo st, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 212 1813;
+370 5 261 25 48; +370 5 262 80 80.
tddm@lndm.lt
