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Just as the religious art folk carvers saw around them served as examples for their work, the output of religious carvers became an artistic source for artists of the generation of Vytautas Ignas (Ignatavičius, 1924–2009). While he was living and working abroad, he was inspired not by the Holy Scriptures and classics of European art, but by their reflection in Lithuanian folk art. He perceived the folk sculptures he had seen in his childhood not so much as an iconographic tradition of the Catholic Church, but rather as an expression of the Lithuanian mentality and ancient Baltic archetypes. The patriotic ambitions of American Lithuanians, and the attitude of all their generation, are evidenced by publications in the emigrécultural press, in which Ignas’ paintings of various Christian themes were not described as religious art, and neither was the issue of the continuity of the Catholic tradition in them discussed. Instead, it was emphasised that he expressed in his work the Lithuanians’ emotional mindset that had formed over centuries. The poet Henrikas Nagys called Ignas’ pictures ‘an interpretation of human fate inherited from folk sculptures, carvings and paintings once and again seen by him in childhood’ (Aidai, 1990, No. 4, p. 317–318).

Text Dalia Vasiliūnienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album HEAVEN AND BEYOND (2016). Compiler Dalia Vasiliūnienė. Text authors Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė
Expositions: “Heaven and Beyond. Works of religious art from the collection of Rolandas Valiūnas and the law firm Valiunas Ellex“, 31 May–24 September 2016, Church Heritage Museum, Vilnius (curators Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė)

Just as the religious art folk carvers saw around them served as examples for their work, the output of religious carvers became an artistic source for artists of the generation of Vytautas Ignas (Ignatavičius, 1924–2009). While he was living and working abroad, he was inspired not by the Holy Scriptures and classics of European art, but by their reflection in Lithuanian folk art. He perceived the folk sculptures he had seen in his childhood not so much as an iconographic tradition of the Catholic Church, but rather as an expression of the Lithuanian mentality and ancient Baltic archetypes. The patriotic ambitions of American Lithuanians, and the attitude of all their generation, are evidenced by publications in the emigrécultural press, in which Ignas’ paintings of various Christian themes were not described as religious art, and neither was the issue of the continuity of the Catholic tradition in them discussed. Instead, it was emphasised that he expressed in his work the Lithuanians’ emotional mindset that had formed over centuries. The poet Henrikas Nagys called Ignas’ pictures ‘an interpretation of human fate inherited from folk sculptures, carvings and paintings once and again seen by him in childhood’ (Aidai, 1990, No. 4, p. 317–318).

Text Dalia Vasiliūnienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album HEAVEN AND BEYOND (2016). Compiler Dalia Vasiliūnienė. Text authors Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė
Expositions: “Heaven and Beyond. Works of religious art from the collection of Rolandas Valiūnas and the law firm Valiunas Ellex“, 31 May–24 September 2016, Church Heritage Museum, Vilnius (curators Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė)