A dilapidated farmstead
| Author: | Bronius Murinas (1906–1986) |
The painter Bronius Murinas was well known in the USA as well as at home. He was born on 31 August 1906 in Riga. He attended a gymnasium in Linkuva between 1918 and 1922, and then the painting studio at Kaunas School of Art from 1923 to 1929. He studied at the École Boulle advanced public school of fine arts and crafts and applied arts in Paris between 1932 and 1935. From 1929 to 1932 he was an art teacher at Kaunas Teacher Training College and Kaunas Women’s School of Arts, from 1935 to 1939 at Klaipėda Pedagogical Institute, and from 1939 to 1944 at Vilnius Pedagogical Institute. He was the author of several textbooks on drawing. He lived and worked in Germany between 1945 and 1949, and after 1949 in the USA, where he earned a reputation as one of the best Post-Impressionist artists of the 1950s. He was a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association (1930), a member (1950) and chairman of the Lithuanian-American Artists’ Association, and a member of the American Society of Artists.He began to participate in exhibitions in 1930. He displayed works in Germany between 1944 and 1949, and from 1951 he participated in exhibitions of work by Lithuanian and American artists in the USA. Between 1954 and 1957, he won three first prizes and one second prize in exhibitions of work by American artists. He held 20 solo exhibitions, most of them in the USA, in Chicago (1957, 1962, 1965, 1967, 1971, 1976, 1981), Detroit (1960), Cleveland (1964), Los Angeles (1965), Boston (1968), New York (1971), Brooklyn (1972), and elsewhere. Murinas died on 18 February 1986 in Chicago. A large posthumous exhibition of his work was held at the M.K. Čiurlionis Gallery in Chicago in 1987, and in 1990 and 2008 exhibitions were held in Vilnius.
Murinas’ early work was close to Post-Impressionism, while his later work (from the 1960s) was more decorative, vivid, colourful, poetic, technically precise, and full of Fauvist colours, expressiveness and playful shapes. There are more than 100 works of his in the collection of the Lithuanian Art Museum, and others in the Aušra Museum in Šiauliai, the M.K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, the Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Lemont, and the Balzek Museum of Lithuanian Art in Chicago.
Source: Valiunas Ellex (LAWIN until 2015) art album: THE WORLD OF LANDSCAPES II (2013). Compiler and author Nijolė Tumėnienė.
The painter Bronius Murinas was well known in the USA as well as at home. He was born on 31 August 1906 in Riga. He attended a gymnasium in Linkuva between 1918 and 1922, and then the painting studio at Kaunas School of Art from 1923 to 1929. He studied at the École Boulle advanced public school of fine arts and crafts and applied arts in Paris between 1932 and 1935. From 1929 to 1932 he was an art teacher at Kaunas Teacher Training College and Kaunas Women’s School of Arts, from 1935 to 1939 at Klaipėda Pedagogical Institute, and from 1939 to 1944 at Vilnius Pedagogical Institute. He was the author of several textbooks on drawing. He lived and worked in Germany between 1945 and 1949, and after 1949 in the USA, where he earned a reputation as one of the best Post-Impressionist artists of the 1950s. He was a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association (1930), a member (1950) and chairman of the Lithuanian-American Artists’ Association, and a member of the American Society of Artists.He began to participate in exhibitions in 1930. He displayed works in Germany between 1944 and 1949, and from 1951 he participated in exhibitions of work by Lithuanian and American artists in the USA. Between 1954 and 1957, he won three first prizes and one second prize in exhibitions of work by American artists. He held 20 solo exhibitions, most of them in the USA, in Chicago (1957, 1962, 1965, 1967, 1971, 1976, 1981), Detroit (1960), Cleveland (1964), Los Angeles (1965), Boston (1968), New York (1971), Brooklyn (1972), and elsewhere. Murinas died on 18 February 1986 in Chicago. A large posthumous exhibition of his work was held at the M.K. Čiurlionis Gallery in Chicago in 1987, and in 1990 and 2008 exhibitions were held in Vilnius.
Murinas’ early work was close to Post-Impressionism, while his later work (from the 1960s) was more decorative, vivid, colourful, poetic, technically precise, and full of Fauvist colours, expressiveness and playful shapes. There are more than 100 works of his in the collection of the Lithuanian Art Museum, and others in the Aušra Museum in Šiauliai, the M.K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, the Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Lemont, and the Balzek Museum of Lithuanian Art in Chicago.
Source: Valiunas Ellex (LAWIN until 2015) art album: THE WORLD OF LANDSCAPES II (2013). Compiler and author Nijolė Tumėnienė.
