“Folk art is of particularly great importance in the cultural education of every nation… We had examples and paintings of that art in the first Lithuanian exhibition, but, unfortunately, too few to gain an understanding of all Lithuanian folk art. Yet it must be the foundation of our art; a unique Lithuanian style must rise from it; it is our pride, because the beauty it possesses is pure, unique, and exclusively Lithuanian.”
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis
Remarkably precise and compelling words from the Genius, like a fine brushstroke connecting the more than century-long Lithuanian folk art movement that began in 1906 at Petras Vileišis’s house (now the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore). This is where the first Lithuanian folk art exhibition was opened.
120 years is a significant anniversary, coinciding with another jubilee—the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Lithuanian Folk Artists’ Union. On March 1, 1966, in Vilnius, the folk masters of that time united into a creative voluntary organization—the Folk Art Society, renamed in 1989 as the Lithuanian Folk Artists’ Union (LTS), uniting separate regional chapters. The LTS Vilnius community has endured and for six decades has carried out creative activities, organized exhibitions, competitions, educational sessions, plein-air events, training programs, and shared experiences with Lithuanians living abroad.
These extraordinary anniversaries and dates inspired the members of the Vilnius Community of the Lithuanian Folk Artists’ Union to organize a larger-scale folk art exhibition, “Years Immortalized in Patterns”. This exhibition is a tribute and homage to creativity, talent, and the traditions safeguarded by hands and hearts. Every work created by a master is a living narrative about time, customs, connection with nature, and the creative spirit that passes down the nation’s memory through generations.
At the exhibition we will see the finest folk art works created in the 21st century, which together have created a meaningful and warm retrospective of contemporary folk art. The exhibition content is diverse, revealing genres of visual art: painting, paper-cuts, graphics, and wooden sculpture; in the field of applied art we will see straw gardens and pussy willows of extraordinary beauty, decorated eggs, traditional ceramics, forged suns, musical instruments, sashes characteristic of all Lithuanian regions, national costumes, woven baskets, primitive painting, paper-cuts, and other works of national heritage.
This wonderful and colorful picture was created by 230 folk artists from Vilnius city, Vilnius and Utena regions, Kėdainiai district, Elektrėnai, Druskininkai, and Visaginas municipalities. We believe that at the exhibition the visitor will find the most beautiful fruits of their ancestral roots.
Chairperson of the Lithuanian Folk Artists’ Union Vilnius Community
Ramutė Kraujalienė
An electronic catalog, “Years Immortalized in Patterns”, has been published.