giedre.jankeviciute[at]vda.lt
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4827-6407
Art historian and curator
Research interests
Art and visual culture of Central and Eastern Europe, especially Lithuania, during the long 19th and 20th centuries.
Giedrė Jankevičiūtė graduated in art history and theory in 1983 from the LSSR State Art Institute (now Vilnius Academy of Arts). In 1994, she defended her doctoral dissertation "The Work of Robertas Antinis (1898–1981) and 20th Century Lithuanian Sculpture", and in 2008 she completed the habilitation procedure. Since 1983 she has been working as a researcher, and since 2010 she has been the chief researcher of the Department of Art History and Visual Culture at the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute. She has been a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts since 1995 and a professor since 2011. She teaches courses on the history of art of the long 19th and 20th century, social theory of art, sources of art history, curatorship, supervises bachelor's and master's theses, doctoral dissertations and post-doctoral studies. In her research work she analyses the social status of the artist, the relationship between art and politics, the functioning of artefacts in society, and the history of Lithuanian art history. Her research interests include periods and phenomena of Lithuanian artistic culture that have been little or almost unexplored. Having identified the Art Deco phenomenon in interwar Lithuanian art and architecture, which is significant for contemporary identity, she went on to research the artistic life of Lithuania during World War II, the impact of the war and the occupation on the fate and creativity of artists, touching such themes as art and the Holocaust, the trauma of war, and the war refugees. She is the initiator and main executor of the Stolpersteine project. The results of her research she regularly publishes in academic articles in the Lithuanian and international academic press, also in the form of exhibitions in Lithuania and other countries, in conference reports, interviews and articles in the cultural media. She has held fellowships at the Swiss Cultural Institute in Rome, and at art research institutions in Paris, Warsaw, Krakow and Leipzig. She is a member of the Lithuanian Society of Art Historians, the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), the European Network for Avant-Garde and Modern Studies (EAM), the European Society for Textual Studies (ESTS), and the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS). Member of various committees, expert in the humanities. For her professional activities she has been awarded the Culture and Art Prize of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania (2014), the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Lithuania (2019), and the Prize of the Lithuanian Society of Art Historians "Drėmos lupa" [Magnifying Glass of Vladas Drėma] (2020).
Research projects
Participant, 2022–2024: “Artistic Creation in the Kaunas Ghetto: on the Representation of Everyday Life and Reality,” supported by the Research Council of Lithuania
Participant, 2022–2024: “Vilnius, Wilno, Vilne 1918–1948: one city – many stories,“ supported by the Council for Culture of Lithuania, Lithuanian national art museum, National museum in Cracow
Project leader, 2020–2022: “The Voice of Lithuania During the Cold War: Lithuanian Chapels in the National Shrine in Washington D.C. and St. Peter`s Basilica in the Vatican,” supported by the Research Council of Lithuania.
Solo project, 2021: “The work of silenced artists during the periods of occupation,” supported by the Municipality of Vilnius
Participant, 2017–2019: “Microhistory of Pavasario balsai [Voices of Spring]: genetic reconstruction of the modernisation of Lithuanian poetry,” supported by the Research Council of Lithuania
Project leader, 2014–2015: “Art historian and critic Mikalojus Vorobjovas (1903–1954),” supported by the Research Council of Lithuania
Participant, 2013–2015: “Lithuania in Wars: Culture, Identities, Exile,” supported by the Research Council of Lithuania from EU funds
Project leader, 2013–2014: “Modernisation of Soviet Lithuanian culture: Teodoras Kazimieras Valaitis (1934–1974) and his artistic activity,” supported by the Research Council of Lithuania
Bibliography
2022: „About Two Gems in the Statdkrone of Kaunas, the Provisional Capital of Interwar Lithuania“, State Construction and Art in East Central Europe, 1918–2018, ed. by Agnieszka Chmielewska, Irena Kossowska, Marcin Lachowski (Routledge). – eBook ISBN 9781003265818. DOI: 10.4324/9781003265818
2022: „Spalvos samprata ir reikšmė Vlado Drėmos meninėje kūryboje“ [The Concept and Meaning of Colour in Vladas Drėma’s Artwork], Meno istorijos studijos / Art History Studies, vol. 11: Objektas ir dekoras: paveldas, procesai, kontekstai, ed. by Skirmantė Smilingytė-Žeimienė, Regimanta Stankevičienė (Vilnius: LKTI), 9–44. – ISSN 27836193.
2022: „Šv. Hiacinto koplyčia Šv. Pilypo ir Jokūbo bažnyčioje ir jos kūrėjas“ [The Chapel of St. Hyacinth in the Church of St. Philip and St. James and its creator], Šv. Dominykas ir šv. Hiacintas Lietuvoje: Aštuoni atminties šimtmečiai, cat., ed. by Birutė Valečkaitė (Vilnius: Bažnytinio paveldo muziejus), 288–299. – ISBN 9786098151244.
2022: „Kaip sugrąžinti balsą nutildytoms tarpukario Vilniaus dailininkėms?“ / “How to give a voice to the silenced women artist of interwar Vilnius?“, Moterys menininkės tarpukario Vilniuje: tarp lūkesčių ir galimybių / Women Artists in Interwar Vilnius: Between Expectations and Possibilities, cat., ed. by Algė Andriulytė, Ilona Mažeikienė (Vilnius: LNDM, VDA leidykla), 16–35. – ISBN 9786094473715.
2022: „Antonietta Raphaël-Mafai: Sono lituana“, Antonietta Raphaël. Attraverso lo specchio / Through the Looking Glass, cat., ed. by Giorgia Calò, Alessandra Troncone (Roma: La Galleria Nazionale–Tlon), 47–61. – ISBN 9791280878007.
2022: „Dailės paroda kovų dėl atminties lauke“ [Art exhibition in the field of the struggle for memory], Acta academiae artium vilnensis, vol. 107: Kaip pasakoti apie meną? Dailės istorija, kritika, tekstai ir pasakojimai Lietuvoje / How to Tell About Art? Art History, Criticism, Texts and Narratives in Lithuania, sud. Lina Michelkevičė, Laura Petrauskaitė, Aušra Trakšelytė (VDA leidykla), 81–111. DOI: 10.37522/aaav.107.2022.136
2021: Sunkus amžius / A Difficult Age. Exhibition catalogue, ed. by Giedrė Jankevičiūtė. Vilnius: MO muziejus, 2021, 192 p. ISBN 978-609-8136-24-1.
2021: „Amžininkų dailė nacionaliniuose rinkiniuose: Vilniaus dailės integravimas į Lietuvos meninį paveldą 1939–1944 m.“ [Art of the contemporary artists in national collections: the integration of Vilnius art into the artistic heritage of Lithuania in 1939–1944], Meno istorijos studijos. Art history studies, vol. 10, ed. by Lina Balaišytė, Gabija Surdokaitė-Vitienė (Vilnius: Lietuvos kultūros tyrimų institutas). – ISSN 27836193.
2021: „Antrojo pasaulinio karo mėsmalėje: Jaroslavlis-Balachna-Pereslavlis Zaleskis-Maskva“ [In the meat grinder of World War II: Yaroslavl-Balachna-Pereslavl Zaleski-Moscow], Vytautas Jurkūnas (1910–1993). Grafikas su fotokamera, cat., ed. by Gabrielė Radzevičiūtė (Vilnius: Vilniaus grafikos meno centras), 123–136. – ISBN 9789955796152.
2021: „Through the eyes of witnesses: visual evidence of the ghetto life in Vilnius and Kaunas during World War II“, Art and the Holocaust: Reflection for the common future, ed. by Marina Gehta (Riga: Museum Jews in Latvia, Riga Jewish community), 36–48. – ISBN 9789934234194. www.ebrejumuzejs.lv/app/uploads/2022/03/art-and-the-holocaust-p36-63.pdf
2021: „Modernizmas Lietuvos bažnytinėje dailėje: Kazio Varnelio (1917–2010) atvejis“ [Modernism in Lithuanian ecclesiastic art: the case of Kazys Varnelis (1917–2010)], Lietuvių katalikų mokslo akademijos metraštis, vol. 44 (Vilnius: LKMA), 117–159. – ISSN 13920502. www.lkma.lt/?id=102#_[aitemid1231]
2020: Nekenčiu sumaišties: Rimantas Sakalauskas [I hate confusion: Rimantas Sakalauskas] (Vilniaus grafikos meno centras). – ISBN 9789955796138.
2020: „Reconstruction of Contested History: Vilnius, 1939–1949“, Baltic Worlds: A scholarly journal from the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) Södertörn University, Stockholm, December 2020, vol. 13, no 4, 67–78; ISSN 20002955 (printed), ISSN 20017308 (online). balticworlds.com/reconstruction-of-contested-history/
2020: „Jaučiuosi sveiku dvidešimto amžiaus produktu“: Kaunas (Brėmenas)–Niujorkas / „I feel like a genuine twentieth-century product“: Kaunas (Bremen)–New York, Formuojant ateitį. Erdvinės Aleksandros Kasubos aplinkos / Shaping the future. Environments by Aleksandra Kasuba, cat., ed. by Elona Lubytė (Vilnius: LNDM), 110–128. – ISBN 9786094261466.
2020: „Karo pėdsakai Vilniuje“ [Traces of war in Vilnius], Naujasis židinys-Aidai, no. 2, 32–38. – ISSN 13926845. nzidinys.lt/giedre-jankeviciute-karo-pedsakai-vilniuje-nz-a-nr-2/
2020: „Laiškai į tremtį. Stasio Ušinsko ir Vitalijos Blažytės susirašinėjimo fragmentai“ [Letters to exile. Fragments of correspondence between Stasys Ušinskas and Vitalija Blažytė], Krantai, no. 1, 8–21. – ISSN 02356384. kranturedakcija.lt/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Krantai2020-1-8-21-Usinskas.pdf
2020: „Dujokaukės įvaizdis Lietuvos XX a. 4 dešimtmečio vizualinėje kultūroje: karo nuojautos ženklai“ [The image of the gas mask in Lithuanian visual culture of the 1940s: Signs of war premonition], Acta academia artium vilnenis, vol. 96: Kaukė ir veidas: atvaizdo istorijos ir teorijos aspektai, ed. by Tojana Račiūnaitė, 260–285. – ISSN 13920316. leidykla.vda.lt/Files/file/Acta_96/Acta_96_9_Jankeviciute_su_Latga.pdf
2020: „Dark Times: Art and Artists of Vilnius in 1939–1941“, Acta academiae artium vilnensis, vol. 98: Tarpukario Vilnius: dailės ir architektūros pavidalai 1919–1939 metais, ed. by Algė Andriulytė, 326–361. DOI: 10.37522/aaav.98.2020.33
2020: Petras Repšys: darbai [Petras Repšys: works], cat. (Vilnius: Lietuvos nacionalinis muziejus). – ISBN 9786094780424.
Conference Papers
Signs of the presentiment of war in the visual culture of Lithuania of the 1930ies: The image of the gas mask. Conference “Wars in intelectual and artistic reflection: media and the production of knowledge in Eastern Europe, 1900–1939”, Germany, 2019 09 10–11.
Realism against Expressionism: Lithuanian art in the late 1930s. 6th International Conference of the European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies (EAM) “Realism(s) of the Avant-Garde and Modernism”, Germany, 2018 09 05–07.
