At the time, ceramic design was the most developed branch of applied arts. The inter-war Kaunas School of Art featured a Ceramics Studio (est. 1931), and the artistic quality of the field was supported by the works of Liudvikas Strolis and his students. Generally, however, post-war Lithuanian ceramic work was more reminiscent of craftwork.
Although they had a strong mastery of ceramic work technique, post-war artists geared their style more to the folksy aesthetics promoted by the inter-war publication Sodžiaus menas (Village Art). Ceramic artists working in the "Dailė" The Vilnius Dailė FactoryThe Vilnius Dailė Factory, established in 1946, opened a Ceramics Unit in 1966 after a new workshop was set up in Vilnius (at 36 Kauno Street) thanks to the efforts of ceramic artist Algirdas Laucius (1928-1995), then the director of the LSSR Art Fund. After the restoration of independence and the shuttering of the Dailė Factory, the ceramics unit was kept open – albeit in a smaller form and with a different focus – and remains in operation today in the same facility under the name Keramikos meno centras Ltd. (Ceramic Arts Centre). factory network established after the war (with the first ceramics unit set up at the Vilnius Dailė Factory in 1966) were not known for any great diversity in the shape of their work, concentrating mostly on satisfying the need for decorative and domestic ceramic ware.
The key reasons behind the revival in ceramic art were the more liberal atmosphere in daily life, the growing prestige enjoyed by the applied arts in general, and the evolving nature of exploration in ceramic arts globally. During the "thaw" period, Lithuanians began to perceive ceramics as a more valued field of artistic activity, one that promised a more rich and associative quality with the potential to have considerable emotional impact on one's environment.
The ceramic arts community was encouraged by changes taking place in pottery in Western Europe. In many countries, the revival in ceramics began after the Second World War. The first to push the established limits of decorative art were modernist painters experimenting with pottery, including Pablo Picasso, Fernard Léger, Jean Lurçat, and Joan Miró. One of the leading centers of innovation in the ceramic arts in the 1950s was the Ceramics Department of the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, established in 1954, under the direction of the Greek-born artist Peter Voulkos (1924-2002). The department promoted the respectful approach to ceramic work embraced by artists in the Far East. Influenced by abstract expressionism, the work of Voulkos and his colleagues surpassed the limitations of craftwork and took on the features of abstract sculpture. Their work consisted of developing studio pottery Studio potteryStudio pottery refers to individual artistic ceramic works (in contrast to industrial ceramics), first manifested as an artistic movement in Great Britain in the early 20th century that placed value on individual creative exploration. In studio pottery, ceramic artists create unique or limited-run pieces individually or working in small groups. The movement, inspired by the ideas of the arts and crafts movement of the 19th century, proliferated thanks to the work of such English ceramic artists as Bernard Leach (1887-1979), William Staite Murray (1881-1962), Dora Billington (1890-1968), Lucie Rie (1902-1995), Hans Coper (1920-1981) and others. as technology progressed around them. Ceramic work around the world was increasingly being freely modeled and molded, without the use of a pottery wheel (thus also attracting artists from other fields who were not lacking in new ideas).
The Lithuanian approach to ceramics as an artisan craft changed as contact increased with ceramic art designed abroad, as Lithuanian artists participated in international exhibitions and travelled as tourists to foreign countries. The world ceramics exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland in 1958 and the 1959 International Ceramics Exhibition in Ostend, Belgium were not only attended by such established Lithuanian ceramic artists as Liudvikas Strolis (1905-1996), Jonas Mikėnas (1899-1988, and Teodora Miknevičienė (1909–1982), but also by artists who had completed their training in the post-war years, including Mykolas Vrubliauskas (1919–1993), Birutė Zygmantaitė (1914–2003), Aldona Ličkutė (1928–2007), Julija Kačinskaitė (b. 1926), Elena Tulevičiūtė (b. 1924), and Birutė Mikučionytė. In 1958, ceramics from the Dailė Factory in Kaunas were shown at the World Expo in Brussels (winning a gold medal) and the Soviet Exhibition of Science, Technology, and Culture in New York. That same year, a series of ceramic works produced at the Kaunas Factory's Ceramics Unit were shown at an international ceramics exhibition in Japan.
Works by young artists comprised the core of the ceramics contribution to the 1960 exhibition of Lithuanian folk and applied art in Warsaw. At a republic-wide exhibition in Vilnius that same year, held to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, a group of young and promising artists presented their work, symbolically showcasing the changes taking place in the Lithuanian applied arts. Participating in this exhibition were, among others: Juozas Adomonis (b. 1932), Genovaitė Jacėnaitė (b. 1933), Egidijus Talmantas (b. 1934), Danutė Eidukaitė (1929–1995), Aldona Ličkutė, Julija Kačinskaitė-Vyšniauskienė, and Elena Tulevičiūtė-Venckevičienė.
Because they had more opportunities to travel as tourists to the so-called socialist bloc countries, Lithuanians had greater access to the works of that region, and also became familiar with trends in these countries through subscriptions to their local press and journals. Lithuanians were influenced during this period by Czech ceramic works, known for their simple shapes and rough surfaces. The 3rd International Ceramics Exhibition, held in Prague in 1962, was impressive in its ambitious scope: presenting over 5,000 pieces, including 2,500 unique ceramic works, from some 30 countries. The strong interest at that time in prehistoric pottery was reflected in a special exhibition devoted to rare examples of archaeological ceramics. Lithuanian ceramic artists who attended the Exhibition remarked:
It should be noted that archaic ceramic traditions were shown in the presentations of almost every country. Juozas Adomonis, Vaclovas Miknevičius, „Tarptautinė keramikos paroda Prahoje“, Dailė, 1964, kn. 4, p. 46.
Soviet artists, including representatives from Lithuania, were sent to Prague to "acquaint themselves with prevailing international artistic standards in ceramics." During their stay, they visited the Czechoslovak Artists' Union, artists' studios and workshops, the Prague Institute for Applied and Industrial Art, as well as various ceramics schools and factories. The journey to Prague broadened their horizons and encouraged them to embrace a new view of ceramic artistry.
Juozas Adomonis, who had just begun his creative journey at that time, recalled the experience in his memoirs: "My eyes were opened in 1962 when I visited the huge ceramics exhibition in Prague organized by the International Academy of Ceramics." Juozas Adomonis, „Ugnies meno apžavėtas“, in: Juozas Adomonis, sudarytojai Juozas Adomonis, Danutė Zovienė, įvadinio teksto autorė Aleksandra Aleksandravičiūtė, Vilnius: LDS leidykla, 2010, p. 105.
Exhibitions held in the "bourgeois" (or "capitalist") European countries were attended only by Soviet ceramic artist groups who had passed a strict selection procedure. Upon their return home, they shared their impressions with others. After visiting Ostend, Jonas Mikėnas talked openly of his admiration for the massive event and shared his insightful commentary about the trends in pottery evolving in Europe:
The international exhibition in Ostend demonstrated a restrained approach to artistic work, a deep appreciation of the material as well as simple and noble shapes. On the other hand, there were also quite glaring examples of uncontrolled fantasy created in the name of originality and innovation, complex and ugly forms, and a disregard for the properties of the material. These two trends were fairly evident in the ceramic works of many countries, and the International Academy of Ceramics accepted works of both types equally.
The former trend was most evident in the ceramic collection presented by the Finns, and the latter—in the Belgian works, most of which, made in the name of expression, originality and innovation at all costs, had a barely discernible functional purpose, unless only to demonstrate that techniques had been borrowed from sculpture, thus surpassing the limitations dictated by ceramic material. Jonas Mikėnas, „Tarptautinės keramikos parodos Belgijoje proga“, Dailė, 1963, Nr. 3, p. nenumeruoti.
Mikėnas perceived the start of a global shift in ceramics away from ornamental works toward more complex, fluid, and conceptual sculptural compositions. His conservative evaluation of processes taking place in the ceramics world and his surprise at how the West tolerated various artistic trends speaks not only to Mikėnas' own personal views, but also to the Soviet environment's imprint on the understanding of the "new style" of ceramics.
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