Šv. Onos Street in Vilnius

Viktoras Vizgirda (1904–1993) is famous as an artist of the interwar period, and as a member of the Ars group, which was formed in Kaunas in 1932 and aspired to renew Lithuanian art in a synthesis of West European painting and Lithuanian folk art. When Lithuania regained Vilnius in 1940, he and other members of the intelligentsia moved from Kaunas to Vilnius, and from 1941 he headed the reorganised Vilnius Academy of Art. It was a major challenge for a young artist. Formerly a teacher of drawing in a gymnasium and a vocational school, he had not only started to teach painting in an institution of higher education, but had even become the rector. The Academy of Art was housed in the buildings of the Bernardine friary, as it still is, and Vizgirda lived in the Academy, in the office of the present rector. He was charmed by the architecture of the three churches, St Anne’s, the Bernardine Church and St Michael’s, and painted them from various angles. This view of Šv. Onos Street is emotional and expressive, with a loud contrast between the red Gothic church and the greenery of the trees.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: “Vilnius. Topophilia. Views of Vilnius from the collection of the law firm Ellex Valiunas”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius. Curator Laima Laučkaitė; "A Glance at the History of Lithuanian Art from Užupis", 30 August 2018 – 1 June 2019, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curator Giedrė Jankevičiūtė.

Viktoras Vizgirda (1904–1993) is famous as an artist of the interwar period, and as a member of the Ars group, which was formed in Kaunas in 1932 and aspired to renew Lithuanian art in a synthesis of West European painting and Lithuanian folk art. When Lithuania regained Vilnius in 1940, he and other members of the intelligentsia moved from Kaunas to Vilnius, and from 1941 he headed the reorganised Vilnius Academy of Art. It was a major challenge for a young artist. Formerly a teacher of drawing in a gymnasium and a vocational school, he had not only started to teach painting in an institution of higher education, but had even become the rector. The Academy of Art was housed in the buildings of the Bernardine friary, as it still is, and Vizgirda lived in the Academy, in the office of the present rector. He was charmed by the architecture of the three churches, St Anne’s, the Bernardine Church and St Michael’s, and painted them from various angles. This view of Šv. Onos Street is emotional and expressive, with a loud contrast between the red Gothic church and the greenery of the trees.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: “Vilnius. Topophilia. Views of Vilnius from the collection of the law firm Ellex Valiunas”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius. Curator Laima Laučkaitė; "A Glance at the History of Lithuanian Art from Užupis", 30 August 2018 – 1 June 2019, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curator Giedrė Jankevičiūtė.