St Michael’s Church

Series ‘Old Vilnius’, 1942–1948.

In the Soviet period, Kuzminskis had an extraordinary career as an artist. He became a People’s Artist of the USSR, a member of the USSR Academy of Arts, and a long-standing head of the Artists’ Union of the LSSR. After the war, he continued to make prints of views of the Old Town in Vilnius, but in a different style: the prints are fragmented, with finely cut shapes, but darker and more sombre. He engraved some of his prints on a material that was commonly used after the war, artificial leather called kozhimit (in Russian кожимит). Some of his engravings reflect the fearsome Soviet reality: the Old Town with soldiers marching through it, the entrance to Vilnius University embellished with flags and a portrait of Stalin. The titles of the works show the ideological changes too: Skapo St was renamed after the composer Juozas Tallat-Kelpša, and the governor’s palace was transformed into the Officers’ House, a place for entertainment for the Red Army. This was how the Old Town acquired its Soviet spirit.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA II (2015). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: ‘Vilnius Forever. A Dialogue of Artworks and Guides to the City’, 25 May 2022 – 30 April 2023 Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curator Laima Laučkaitė.

Series ‘Old Vilnius’, 1942–1948.

In the Soviet period, Kuzminskis had an extraordinary career as an artist. He became a People’s Artist of the USSR, a member of the USSR Academy of Arts, and a long-standing head of the Artists’ Union of the LSSR. After the war, he continued to make prints of views of the Old Town in Vilnius, but in a different style: the prints are fragmented, with finely cut shapes, but darker and more sombre. He engraved some of his prints on a material that was commonly used after the war, artificial leather called kozhimit (in Russian кожимит). Some of his engravings reflect the fearsome Soviet reality: the Old Town with soldiers marching through it, the entrance to Vilnius University embellished with flags and a portrait of Stalin. The titles of the works show the ideological changes too: Skapo St was renamed after the composer Juozas Tallat-Kelpša, and the governor’s palace was transformed into the Officers’ House, a place for entertainment for the Red Army. This was how the Old Town acquired its Soviet spirit.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA II (2015). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: ‘Vilnius Forever. A Dialogue of Artworks and Guides to the City’, 25 May 2022 – 30 April 2023 Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curator Laima Laučkaitė.