Doctoral studies

Alicja Dacevič (LKTI)

18th June 2026

„The Chapels of Catholic Monastic Orders in Vilnius from 1617 to 1864: An Aspect of the Urban Soundscape“

Supervisor prof. dr. Laima Budzinauskienė

Source of the illustration: created using ChatGPT (June 4, 2026).

Dissertation

 Ieva Rusteikaitė (VDA)

29th May 2026

„The Book as an Artefact: Binding Techniques and Decoration of the Vilnius School to the Mid-17th Century“

Supervisor dr. Jolita Liškevičienė

Illustration: 16th–17th century bookbinder’s workshop, from Jan Amos Comenius, Orbis Sensualium Pictus (Brzeg: Christoph Tschorn, Kaspar Müller, 1667), pp. 234–235 © Vilnius University Library.

Dissertation examines the development of bookbinding in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the second half of the sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century, with particular attention to the bookbinding school that emerged in Vilnius. The research is based on the analysis of written sources and surviving artefacts, namely the bindings of books that circulated within the region. Using a structured descriptive model, the study systematically investigates the structural, material, and decorative features of the bindings. The findings reveal new evidence on the technological diversity of local bindings and the presence of imported artefacts. The study shows that bindings associated with the Vilnius school belong to a broader Northern and Central European tradition, while also displaying distinctive local characteristics. The analysis of one of the largest collections of books printed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the region, formerly owned by the Vilnius Jesuit Academy Library, provides new insights into early modern practices of book circulation and use. The dissertation contributes to a deeper understanding of printing, book distribution, and craft of bookbinding in this period and proposes a methodological framework for further research.

Dissertation

Vaidas Jauniškis (LMTA)

10th March 2026

„The (A)political Body of the Theatre: Sociocultural Aspectsof 21st-Century Lithuanian Performing Arts“

Supervisor Prof. Dr. Ramunė Marcinkevičiūtė

Joana Vitkutė (VDA)

5th February 2026

„The Expression of the Concept of Childhood in Lithuanian Art from the Mid-18th to the First Half of the 19th Century“

Supervisor Dr. Aistė Paliušytė-Lugovojienė

Unknown artist, Portrait of a Boy, 1798, oil on canvas.
Lithuanian National Museum of Art, T 9119.

During the Late Renaissance and Baroque periods, the conventions characteristic of classical old children’s portraiture became established in official representations of children, which largely followed the compositional schemes of adult portraits. Such works primarily served to reinforce family status and embody the expectations placed upon the child. Consequently, little room was left in these portraits for the expression of individuality – let alone the childishness – of the young sitter, who was often depicted as a miniature adult or even artificially ‘aged’ by the artist. As in the real lives of children at the time, childhood itself was often ‘accelerated’ or deliberately concealed. Thus, in portraits of noble offspring, one can sense a clear tension where a child’s inherent childishness clashes with the adult role prematurely imposed upon them.

Nevertheless, significant changes emerged in children’s portraiture from the mid-18th to the first half of the 19th century, reflecting broader shifts in the perception of childhood. Under the influence of Enlightenment thinkers, and later of the worldviews of pre-Romanticism and Romanticism, childhood came to be defined – and soon also established in theoretical thought –as one of the most important, valuable, and unique stages of human life, worthy of considerable and special attention. As a result, artists increasingly sought to capture natural, childlike qualities in their subjects, emphasising the innate innocence of childhood. In other words, both in public life and art, the child gradually became a child, i.e. the way we perceive them today.

The aim of the dissertation is to problematise artistic Lithuanian studies of childhood –which until now have been based primarily on formal and iconographic analysis – by systematically linking them to the social processes that occurred in the 18th to early 19th century. In Europe, this period symbolically marked the turn of the century; in Lithuania, it also coincided with a significant era of political changes. The dissertation examines how the evolving concept of childhood – recorded in contemporary educational texts and practices – was manifested in secular children’s portraits created in the historical Lithuanian lands (or painted abroad on commission by local nobility) in the mid-18th and the first half of the 19th century. Although the main focus is on painting, works in other media – such as graphic art, sculpture, wall painting, and amateur art (home drawing) – are also considered, with the aim of presenting as comprehensive a panorama as possible of the Lithuanian ‘discovery of childhood’.

Dissertation

Rasa Dargužaitė (LKTI)

30th September 2025

Supervisor Prof. Dr. (hp) Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Open House Day at the Vilnius "Dailė" Art Production Factory, 1972, photo by K. Liubšys, LCVA, 0-054593.

The centenary of the restoration Lithuania’s independence inspired a reflection on the history of Lithuanian modern design. In 2018, exhibitions were held not only in Lithuania but also in the neighbouring countries – Latvia and Estonia – accompanied by catalogues that reviewed design processes, highlighted the most prominent local design examples, and attempted to grasp the nature and dynamics of their development, as well as define their significance in the context of cultural history. 

One of the most important producers of design in soviet-era Lithuania was the Art Production Factories “Dailė”. Three “Dailė” main branch factories operated – in Kaunas (since 1945), and in Vilnius and Klaipėda (both independently from 1946). Such enterprises – art production factories – were only possible under the conditions of a totalitarian regime and a state-controlled economy. They were constructs created by the dominant ideology and political system. The “Dailė” Art Production Factories brought together artists from various disciplines. They developed and implemented public space art projects, designed decoration for festive events, instalation for exhibitions, museum displays, as well as interiors and exterior decorations for public buildings. This was also the setting where so-called industrial art – decorative and utilitarian objects – was developed and transformed.

The aim of this dissertation is to determine the place, character and significance of the “Dailė” Art Production Factories’ production in the context of Lithuanian design history, emphasizing the institutional strategies shaped by Soviet ideology and supported by the control of the totalitarian regime. 

The dissertation analyses the specifics of Soviet design – artistically crafted objects for everyday life and environment, their aesthetics, and the mechanisms of their production and consumption. The period studied spans from 1945 to 1990. The first chapters address the prehistory of the factories, tracing back to the interwar period and examining the conditions that led to the founding of the “Dailė” Art Production Factories. The main analysis focuses on their operations from their establishment in 1945 until the declaration of independence in 1990, when the system began to disintegrate, losing both its ideological and economic foundations.

Jūratė Katinaitė (LMTA)

23rd September 2025

„Opera Soloist in the Cultural Field of Soviet Lithuania: The Case of the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre“

Supervisor Prof. Dr. Rūta Stanevičiūtė-Kelmickienė

Deima Kristina Katinaitė-Zajančauskė (VDA)

26th June 2025

„Strategies to Acculturate Nature in Western Art of the 19th–20th Centuries“

Supervisor Prof. Dr. Giedrė Mickūnaitė

Dionizas Poška's Baublys, photograph from: Dionizas Poška, Raštai (Writings), Vilnius: State Fiction Publishing House, 1959, pp. 512-513.

At what point, and by what means, did nature in art assume the role of a catalyst for sensory engagement and perceptual experience? What are the dynamics and conceptual transformations associated with this role in the context of Western art throughout the 19th and 20th centuries? These are the central questions underpinning this study, which explores the evolving artistic transformation of natural elements – particularly landscapes and, in certain instances, trees – within the framework of a modernising Western culture. The dissertation focuses on artistic practices wherein these natural forms are interpreted and mobilised as mediatory structures, intended to reveal or activate the experiential content of the perceiver. While the origins of experiential art are frequently traced to modernist movements such as Dada, the thesis advances a preceding genealogy: it contends that art began to consciously shape perceptual experience in the late 18th and early 19th centuries through aesthetic engagements with nature. This shift – from objecthood, which recedes, to experience, which becomes the essence of the object – can be traced to Romanticism, during which landscape painting increasingly sought to express the subjective experience of the perceiver. In the twentieth century, artists continued the Romantic trajectory of de-emphasising material objecthood, instead advancing a corporeal approach that facilitated direct and unmediated engagement with nature. Such practices enabled the viewer to participate in nature in the present tense, fostering unique, individual experiences not mediated by conventional forms of knowledge. Physical interaction with natural elements – emphasising change, ephemerality, and temporality – emerged as a defining mode of artistic practice.

This critical reappraisal of the history of Western art from a naturalistic perspective is anchored in nuanced interpretations of material objects such as Dionizas Poška’s Baublys (1812) and Giuseppe Penone’s It Will Continue to Grow Except at That Point (1968). Baublys is a singular and, arguably, prophetic artefact that has yet to be fully addressed within an art historical context. It functions as a structure for the transmission of experience. Poška’s establishment of Baublys – a theatricalisation and aestheticisation of the inhabited world – represents a novel gesture of early 20th century cultural innovation: a strategy for the acculturation of nature that exhibits participatory features. It is a performative act embedded within the lived environment, preceding by several decades the so-called performative turn of the 1960s. While Baublys may not constitute a work of art in a formal or indigenous sense, its resonances with modern artistic practices are compelling. In the 19th century, Baublys operates as a contemporary object: it embodies an aesthetics of performativity characterised by threshold experiences that effect a transformation in the perceiver. In the 20th century, Giuseppe Penone engages sculptural form to reflect upon the world from the standpoint of both corporeality and consciousness. Through the identification of self with other via art, he attempts to perceive the environment from the perspective of the plant. In this gesture, the tree becomes simultaneously a mediator and a co-agent, culminating in an artistic object that stages the coexistence of human and non-human being.

The dissertation proposes that, during the period under study, nature is translated into culture through three principal modes: by showing – adapting the landscape to align with the needs of the perceiver; by seeing – relating landscape to human experience; and by participating – engaging in situational, often physical interactions with nature, wherein the experience itself constitutes the content of the artwork.

Dissertation

Birutė Kabašinskienė (VDA)

20th June 2025

„The Iconography of St. Francis and St. Dominic in Franciscan and Dominican Art in Vilnius in the 16th-mid 19th Century: Expression of Features of Saints and Theological Ideas“

Supervisor Dr. Tojana Račiūnaitė

St. Francis and St. Dominic. A fragment of the fresco “Apotheosis of the Holy Spirit” on the dome of Vilnius Church of the Holy Spirit. Photographe Kęstutis Stoškus, Church Heritage Museum digital archive.

The aim of the dissertation is to discuss how the features of saints and theological ideas that present sanctity are expressed in the iconography of St. Francis of Assisi (1181/1182–1226) and St. Dominic (1171/1173–1221) according to the examples of the 16th – mid 19th century artworks from Vilnius Franciscan and Dominican convents and churches. During the research, visual and textual material about these images was collected. The tendencies of presentation of both saints (significant in Vilnius) were discussed through the analysis of the genesis of their iconography: its formation in the 13th century and the emergence of the tradition of juxtaposition of St. Francis and St. Dominic. In the context of Franciscan and Dominican convents and churches in Vilnius, the influence of historical circumstances on the spread and change of the iconography of both saints was presented. Finally, the diversity of surviving images (or the ones captured in photographs and engravings; in total 65 out of 108 mentioned in the sources) was analysed on the basis of the hagiographic texts and earlier iconographic examples that influenced local Franciscan and Dominican art.

Mantė Valiūnaitė (LMTA)

27th June 2024

"Hybridity in Cinema: Theoretical Concept, Film Festivals and Lithuanian Documentary Film Cases"

Supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lina Kaminskaitė-Jančorienė

Dissertation

Evelina Januškaitė (VDA)

26th June 2024

"Volatile Mimesis: Experiencing an Alert Image in Contemporary Art"

Supervisor Prof. Dr. Giedrė Mickūnaitė

Photo: The fragment of Dalia Truskaitė‘s artwork From Above. Exhibition “Suiten. Spaces of changing Perceptions”, 2023
Photo by Tomas Terekas.

The focus on perceiver‘s relationship to an image poses the question of the intersection of a surface and subjective gaze. An image needs an external medium to emerge before the perceiver; hence, the importance lies not only in what is being represented, but also in where the image settles down. Today, the actively displaying and gaze-mediating surface becomes a temporary medium of reality that fluid and impatient image demands for. Such image starts to be alert; moreover, it thickens, repeats, and multiplies reality, thus bringing the issue of mimesis back into the discourse of visual culture.

The subject of this thesis is the dynamics of mimesis in contemporary art. The analysis begins with artworks employing physical mirror reflection, which is termed spontaneous mimesis; then discusses photography as a fixed reflection of reality, termed stabilized mimesis; continues by exploring the screens of contemporaneity – fluid mimesis; and finally concludes with an evaporating imprint of reality – volatile mimesis. The rhetoric of theoretical shift is formed in this sequence, and the fluctuation of mimesis is based on the interpretation of contemporary artworks where activating surfaces are employed.

The thesis argues that the alert image, as a (non-)fixative medium, manifests itself in activating surfaces as one of the aspects of contemporaneity. In contemporary art, the alert image is an extreme expression of conceptually suppressed, yet experienced mimesis. Constant multiplication of perceived reality reinforces the experience of temporality and the ever-passing present.

This dissertation offers a revised concept of mimesis, with changeability as its key feature. Such fluid and volatile mimesis circulates in contemporary art, where the alert image desires to find itself in the presence of the viewer.

Dissertation

Vaida Ragėnaitė (VDA)

20th June 2024

"Motives of Patriotism and Civic Resistance in the 19th Century Lithuanian Art: The Case of Kanuty Rusiecki" 

Supervisors: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Birutė Rūta Vitkauskienė (2017-2023), Prof. Dr. Helmutas Šabasevičius (2023-2024) 

Kanuty Rusiecki. Reaper. 1844. Oil on canvas. 45x33. LNDM

The hope to restore the former state – the Republic of Both Nations – persisted throughout the 19th century, fueling civil resistance in both Polish and Lithuanian societies. Efforts to regain independence escalated into the uprisings of 1794 led by Tadeusz Kościuszko, the 1830–1831 and 1863–1864 uprisings. These armed struggles did not liberate either Poland or Lithuania, but they fostered patriotism and unwavering resolve to regain freedom.As the repressive actions of the occupying powers intensified, the role of art only grew. Poems and paintings became weapons in the fight against the imperial policy of Russification.

Vaida Ragėnaitė's dissertation highlights, through the case study of Kanuty Rusiecki, how artworks created after the suppression of the 1830–1831 uprising encoded secret symbolic meanings that represented the ideas of patriotism and civic resistance.

Dissertation

Paulius Petraitis (LKTI)

18th June 2024

"Intermediality and Networked Meaning-Making in Contemporary Baltic Art Photography"

Supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Odeta Žukauskienė

Vytautas Kumža, “Did I?”, 2022. Archival ink-jet print, door chain, screws, aluminum frame. 50x40cm

This dissertation investigates the evolving realm of contemporary Baltic art photography, focusing on intermediality and networked meaning-making. The research, concentrated on the period 2013-2023, scrutinises the profound transformations within art photography influenced by digital and network technologies. It frames its exploration around the integration of photography with other media forms and the shifts in how photographic meanings are constructed and perceived in the interconnected, networked milieu.

The study situates itself within the context of the digital transformation that has redefined the boundaries and functionalities of photography. It explores how contemporary photographic practices in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia navigate this new terrain. Tracing photography's journey from traditional roots to a networked image culture, it highlights the transition from classical to networked meaning-making paradigms. By contrasting contemporary frameworks with traditional modes of meaning-making, the dissertation highlights the role of algorithms and digital platforms in shaping how images are received and interpreted, underlining the complex interplay between technology and artistic expression in contemporary photography.

The thesis aims to contribute to the fields of photography theory, art history and visual studies by shedding light on the nuanced dynamics of intermedial art practices and by broadening the understanding of how contemporary Baltic photographic artists engage with and contribute to global art discourses.

Dissertation

Dainius Junevičius (LKTI)

20th October 2023

"Lithuanian Photography in the 1850s–1880s (The Wet Collodion Period) and Its Social Determinants"

Supervisor dr. Jolita Mulevičiūtė

Iliustration: P-5. Būrelis žmonių stebi akrobatą ant lyno. Tolumoje Žaliakalnis, kairėje kadro dalyje pastatas L. Sapiegos g. 3. Kaunas, apie 1878, J. Bžozovskio ateljė. Iš privačios kolekcijos.

The dissertation analyses the wet collodion stage in the history of photography, which followed the daguerreotype era. During this phase, photographs could be reproduced in small quantities, though their high cost limited their accessibility to a select group of users. This constraint had implications for photographers’ commercial viability, as well as the potential dissemination, adaptation, and use of photographs, shaping the iconographic spectrum of images.

The primary focus of this research centres on all photographs captured using the wet collodion method in Lithuania and their creators, as well as the social factors influencing photographers’ endeavours.

This study adopts a perspective of social history, treating photography as an open, multifaceted contextual phenomenon encompassing both technological and social dimensions. The methodology incorporates comparative analysis and iconographic approaches, supported by an empirical and factual framework.

Unexplored resources from other countries such as Poland, Belarus, Russia, and France were used in the work. This enabled the identification and publication of unique iconographic materials crucial to the history of photography and ethnography. Additionally, it contributed new written sources and visual documentation to the realm of scholarly knowledge.

The three parts of the dissertation delve into the operations of photographic portrait studios during the wet collodion era, the determinants underpinning photography’s evolution within the context of governmental relations (legislative control over photographers, the deployment of photography for propagating imperial ideology in Lithuania, state commissions), and how photography responded to societal needs (photography’s role in regional knowledge, creation of Vilnius photo albums, deployment of photography for documenting economic and technological advancement).

The dissertation includes the first comprehensive index of individuals actively engaged in photography during the wet collodion period.

Dissertation

Ieva Blinstrubienė (VDA)

28th September 2023

"Evolution of Spatial Structures of Vilnius Monasteries in the 14th Century and the First Half of the 18th Century Based on In situ Research Data"

Supervisor Dr. (hp) Rūta Janonienė 

Vilniaus Švč. Jėzaus Širdies bažnyčia ir Vizičių vienuolynas / J. Bułhak. Vilnius : J. Bulhako foto-atelje, [1912-1915]. Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių bibliotekos skaitmeninis archyvas.

When delving into the architectural history of Vilnius, one frequently encounters the limited survival of visual references. The distinct material layers of urban structures are interpreted through studies focused on architectural characteristics. These studies, along with investigations into polychrome elements and archaeological findings, complement the often scarce details found in historical records. In certain instances, they even serve as the sole means of research. This study relies on data obtained from ongoing research, examines the evolution of spatial layouts within architectural monastery complexes. These complexes represent a significant typology of urban constructions that influenced the city's structure from their inception until the early 18th century. The research compiles and assesses analyses of the nature of monastic structures situated within Vilnius Old Town. Based on this examination, the study aims to identify patterns, similarities, and distinctions in the continuous transformation of these complexes.

Dissertation

Jurij Dobriakov (VDA)

21st December 2022

"The Development of the New Media Art Discourse in Lithuania in the 1990s–2010s"

Supervisor doc. dr. Lolita Jablonskienė

Installation view of “Timestamps”, a Lithuanian media art retrospective (National Gallery of Art, Vilnius, 2021). Photo by Gintarė Grigėnaitė

New media art, based on the intersection of art, science, and technology, as well as networked commons and sociopolitical activism, is a challenging object of art-critical analysis. This art field has a long and rich history, a broad network of institutions, initiatives and informal communities, yet it has historically had limited visibility in the institutionalised system of contemporary visual art and conventional art criticism. It can be argued that it is a parallel art world that exists in an isolated autonomous ecosystem, and is mostly reflected on within the latter. Due to this reason, new media art discourse has often lacked a more objective insight from the outside – the few art critics who commented on new media art phenomena encountered difficulties related to contextual vocabulary usage. In their turn, advocates of new media art, who pursued its legitimation, simultaneously sought to distance themselves from the supposedly hegemonic system of traditional art institutions and the art market, further deepening the discursive divide. In Lithuania, the result of this mutual misunderstanding or ignorance, coupled with the limited size of the new media movement itself, was that media art, which had briefly caught the attention of art experts in the late 1990s mostly due to its formal novelty, and became a phenomenon with a developed discourse relevant to a specific community, eventually failed to establish itself as a current, well-reflected practice synchronised with international processes, and remained essentially marginalised in the Lithuanian art history two decades later. The decline of the discourse was also influenced by the global factors of technological progress. New media art succesfully existed as an autonomous field when digital and network technology was not widespread, and artists had the privilege of exposing their invisible mechanisms to the broader public, acting as visionaries who heralded a more democratic and creative future. However, as this technology permeated all social strata and became routine, techno-utopian visions lost their currency, and were superseded by less straightforward renderings of technology’s impact delivered by post-digital art forms.

Marius Armonas (LKTI)

23rd September 2022

"Contemporary Installation Art in Lithuania: Posthumanist Perspective"

Supervisor dr. Erika Grigoravičienė

In the discourse of installation art, the viewer is traditionally regarded as a central figure and his or her participation as a key condition for the artwork. However, 2010s reflect a significant increase of interest in different materialities, including living organisms and digital technologies in art, along with the reflexive approach of the artists themselves to the relation between humans and nonhumans, culture and nature. This provides an opportunity to reconsider how and in collaboration with whom installation art gets to be created today; how it is received and experienced. For this reason, the theories of posthumanism are used as a methodological tool in order to critically reassess the anthropocentric worldview and question the positions of power that a human claims to hold. This research overviews the features, models and cases of installation art of the 2010s with the aims to enrich and rethink our understanding of installation. It is achieved by redistributing our attention among all the material objects of installation, thus considering a viewer as a mere component among all others. The artwork itself then, is as a collection of equally important elements with interacting materialities, rather than a set of passive objects orchestrated by the artist. The research proposes a hypothesis that installation artworks can be recognized as a prototype model for the theories of posthumanism, because they involve real encounters between humans, things, living organisms and technology. Installations are fostering us to inquire into being and knowledge of both, the Self and the nonhuman Other, and thereby are able to reconfigure this interrelation.

Narius Kairys (VDA)

13th May 2022

"Between Ethnography and Fiction: The Films of Šarūnas Bartas and Aleksey Fedorchenko"

Supervisor prof. dr. Nerijus Milerius

Shot from Šarūnas Bartas' film "Few of Us"

Fearful of discrediting their scientific authority, anthropologists have long shunned what any film strives for, i.e., artfulness in the broadest sense. Eventually, with the realisation that many of the previous assumptions about scientific truth were questionable, the demand for ethnographic films to become more scientific or rebrand themselves as art lost its relevance. Moreover, while ethnographic film had long been associated with documentary practices, in the last few decades anthropologists have taken into consideration the ability of narrative and even fiction cinema to convey the symbolic structures and experiential knowledge of other cultures to the public. I argue that contemporary filmmakers, including Lithuanian film director, Šarūnas Bartas, and Russian filmmaker, Aleksey Fedorchenko, whose works examine an ethnographic subject, question the rigid distinction between art and ethnography and prompt us to rethink the definition of ethnographic film. To make my point, I analyse two of Bartas’s early films: Tofalaria (1986) and Few of Us (1996), and three Fedorchenko’s films: Shosho (2006), Silent Souls (2010), and Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari (2012). The analysis of these films has shown the potential and limitations of diverse strategies in ethnographic filmmaking. This in turn creates premises for further discussion on a closer exchange between art and science and a different understanding of ethnographic film that does not rely solely on the documentary tradition and exclusively anthropologist-produced films.

Evelina Bukauskaitė (VDA)

5th October 2021

"Jewish Artistic Life in Lithuania 1919–1940: Between Autonomy and Integrity"

Supervisor Leading researcher, Dr. (hp) Laima Laučkaitė-Surgailienė

Fragment of the catalogue cover of the first group exhibition of Lithuanian Jewish Artists held in Kaunas in 1929, Kaunas University of Technology library

The independent Republic of Lithuania, with Kaunas settled as the capital in 1919, rebuilt the foundations of modern Jewish, as well as Lithuanian, culture. In the newly formed state of Lithuania, the second largest community in the provisional capital was busy establishing its cultural life and searching for its identity. In the case of art, there was a correlation between the attempts to join the general artistic life of Lithuania and the satisfaction of the inner needs of the community.

Lithuania‘s familiarity with Jewish art has been rather one-sided: what prevails is the analysis of Jewish artists‘ activity and creative work from the point of view of their integration into the general culture of the country. For this reason, the picture of interwar Lithuania‘s Jewish art and its contexts that has formed in Lithuanian art studies is incomplete, and many artists and artistic events have remained in the margins or completely unknown. This applies to the art and artists dedicated to the needs of the Jewish community, but also to the activities of local Jewish artists in other countries who left Lithuania.

Jewish art life in Lithuania, as an individual and unique process that experienced ebbs and flows, adapted to political and historical realities, and absorbed and reflected a wide range of influences, was multifaceted and varied. Its trucated cognition does not allow us to see the overall picture as a whole, as a distinctive element of interwar Lithuanian cultural life. This kind of congition offers a new insight into the migration of artistic ideas and influences, art organisers and participants, and is important for the history of Jewish culture, but also for the general history of Lithuanian culture.

Eglė Bagušinskaitė (VDA)

1st October 2021

"Manufacture of Furniture in Vilnius from the Second Half of the 19th Century to the Beginning of the 20th Century: Craft and Industry"

Supervisor Dr. Dalia Klajumienė

Spinta, dekoruota liūtų galvomis, Nalšios muziejus, inv. Nr. IE-608, fot. E. Bagušinskaitė, 2019 m.

Until now, there has been no detailed and consistent study in Lithuanian historiography analysing the activities and education of craftspeople who made furniture, their wares, and the origination and nature of local industrial furniture production. It is noteworthy that research on the history of interiors that focuses on furniture is still lacking. By using previous research on the socio-political and economic context, theoretical reconstructions based on archival sources, prosopography, attribution, and comparisons with other geographical locations, this text studies furniture production development in Vilnius from the second half of the 19th century through the early 20th century, distinguishing the segments of artisanal and industrial production. This study shows the interaction between craftspeople and emerging furniture production factories and how the co-existence of these two industries met different consumer needs. It complicates the well-established stereotypical notion that industrial production displaced craftspeople from the furniture production market. The study on furniture production is relevant in the context of Lithuanian historiography because it expands the knowledge about processes of the development and modernization of crafts in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century, the origin and spread of factory products, reveals the impact of economic and social changes, modernization on the production, and design of furniture.

Marius Daraškevičius (LKTI)

30th June 2021

"Modernization of the Dining Rooms in Lithuanian Manors from the Mid-1700s to Early 1900s"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Rasa Butvilaitė

There are no studies on the historical development of manor houses’ interiors from the mid-1700s to early 1900s in Lithuanian art history that delve into the interior in terms of function, planned structure and form. The focus most often is on researching general features of manor architecture (building volumes, style development, estates’ spatial structure). Because of this, this doctoral thesis analyses the issue of manor interior modernization in a narrower perspective, concentrating on one space in manor houses of highest-level nobility: the dining room. The dissertation aims to reconstruct the structure and image of the dining space in the context of manors’ modernization processes from the mid-1700s to the early 1900s. The work investigates the causes of the emergence, prevalence and change of the dining room, the development of planning, form, structure, equipment and decor during that period. Object research complements the historiography of the development of the Lithuanian nobility’s culture. The methods of monads and clues and the social history of art were chosen to approach this micro-historical research, using historiographical and factual research methods and comparative analysis. The newly found data and the insights based on it provide a broader view of manor houses’ planning and decoration phenomena and aspects of the nobility’s lifestyle, cultural and social contacts. From the perspective of regional art and architecture history, the thesis is significant in that it covers the manors of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Lithuania, Belarus and Poland, and ties them into an aggregate of common cultural tradition. In the Lithuanian art history framework, the research is important because it rethinks the processes of manor modernization in the context of Lithuanian historical and social development and broader European modernization processes. It also analyses their social, political, cultural settings and how the everyday home environment, in this case – the dining room, responded to them. This study is expected to be used as a practical aid for manor managers and heritage experts.

Monika Krikštopaitytė

20th November 2020

"Self-portrait and Self-portraiture in Lithuanian Art of the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries"

Supervisor prof. dr. (hp) Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Photo: Konstantinas Bogdanas, Identifikacija. Tėvas ir sūnus, 2000, fragmentas, 22,5 x 18, fotografavo Gintautas Trimakas, aut. nuos.

Today’s flows of visual information on social networks, the saturation of the media with spectacles, and the culture of selfies have changed the status of self-image and the ways in which it is interpreted. Not so long ago, the image of a person in photography was cherished as a rare and unique witness of the past, and when transferred to a work of art, was associated with privilege. This research has been stimulated by the desire to discover the elements and patterns which connect the diversity of today’s self-images with the phenomena of art and history, to discern possible approaches and to understand the course of development of the artist’s self-perception in the Lithuanian context.

This research focuses on the embodiment of the artist’s self-image in the artwork, and the analysis of its forms and meanings. It adopts the view that a traditional self-portrait is a conscious and open choice of the author to present himself/herself. However, the structure of self-portrait also manifests itself in other types of works, where the problematic elements of self-portrait are important. This study examines the ways in which the authors of traditional and non-traditional self-portraits construct their image, what is it that determines the artist’s forms of self-perception and demonstration, and in what kinds of striking social and cultural circumstances the analysis of self-portraiture artworks can be identified.

The thesis puts forward the hypothesis that the genre of self-portrait has changed in contemporary art: the image of the artist has become a manipulative formation which has become detached from the author’s need to establish a social identity, which dominated in self-portraits by Lithuanian artists in the 20th century, and has extended to a wider range of meanings.

The aim of the study is to investigate, systematize and interpret the development of self-portrait and self-portraiture expression in late modernist and contemporary Lithuanian art, taking into account the shifts in the artist’s position in society and the development of self-image determined by his/her personal and social circumstances.

Dissertation

Dainius Labeckis

16th October 2020

"The Art of Gardens as a Space for the Manifestations of Romanticism: The Aesthetics of Lithuanian Manor Gardens and Parks at the End of the 18th Century and in the First Half of the 19th Century"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Rasa Butvilaitė

Manor gardens and parks, which are the focus of this work, were some of the most important spaces for the manifestation of Romanticism in the realisation of artistic ideas. At the end of the 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century, Romantic features appeared in various forms in the works of the contributors to the ideas about gardens in literature, architecture, horticulture, and visual arts. In the cultural environment of the Enlightenment and the Romantic era, a unique local tradition of Lithuanian parks was formed.

This dissertation analyses the ways in which Romanticism informed and was reflected in the aesthetics of Lithuanian gardens and parks of the period, touching on related issues. The main aspects of the research problem are the origins of the phenomenon, its cultural and geographical coordinates, the local and European contexts that influenced it, and gardening trends in the period investigated. Moreover, this study also looks at the features that determined the singularity of individual parks, the combination of widespread and unparalleled characteristics in their layout, the symbolic meanings assigned to park spaces, and the relationship between art and nature in the aesthetics of a park. Based on various historical sources and research of the heritage of historical parks, this project concentrates primarily on parks that are better preserved or more fully documented, but material from other sites is also used as appropriate.

This research project aims to re-energise the discussion around the importance of the Lithuanian garden art and to integrate the origins of the phenomenon into the broader cultural history, at least partially filling the gaps in historiography and indicating the directions of further research.

Dissertation

Aistė Bimbirytė-Mackevičienė (LKTI)

4th October 2019

"WESTERN EUROPEAN FINE ARTS IN LITHUANIAN COLLECTIONS IN THE 19TH CENTURY AND COUNT WŁADYSLAW TYSZKIEWICZ"

Supervisor dr. (hp) Laima Surgailienė

Synthetic research of generalised nature on the emergence, content, prevailing trends and changes in taste in Lithuanian collections, especially those accumulated on the grounds of foreign fine arts, hardly exist in Lithuanian art history. Art collections are usually researched only from the perspective of patronage. This encouraged to choose the collections of Western European fine arts, in particular the collections of paintings, the circumstances of their emergence in Lithuanian manors in the 19th century and a specific case of the collection of Władyslaw Tyszkiewicz as the subject of the doctoral thesis.

The aim of the doctoral thesis is to generalise the relation of the local aristocracy at that time to foreign art objects and assess Lithuanian collections in the context of Western European collecting on the grounds of the analysis of the content and circumstances of Western European art collections in Lithuania in the 19th century. The thesis reviews the change in the appreciation of the so called “Old Masters” (i.e. fine arts of 14th–18th centuries) in Western Europe during the 19th century, the content of the sets of works of fine arts of Western Europe which were present in Lithuania in the 19th century, as well as the libraries of private manors and published cultural texts. It reveals the incentives, influences and opportunities to acquire works abroad of Lithuanian collectors and conveys the development of collecting in Lithuania in the 19th – early 20th centuries and the circumstances that had an impact on it.

The main objectives implied employment of a historiographic method. In addition, factographic research, comparative analysis and the methodology of social art history aimed at functioning of fine arts in society were also used. The method of case study was also employed to reveal the typicality of the phenomenon of collecting of Władyslaw Tyszkiewicz and the epilogue of colleting tradition in Lithuania.

The thesis makes a significant contribution to Lithuanian historiography of collecting. The newly discovered data and insights made on them encourage a broader look at the phenomenon of collecting, personality of the collector, the reasons of his choices, contextual assessment of case studies as a part of a phenomenon that has become a characteristic feature of the era. Finally, this work contributes to the attempts to reduce the isolation of the culture of manors, which is often felt in the construction of Lithuanian identity. In addition to still existing image of the 19th-century Lithuania as an isolated country, the thesis encourages to look at another- i.e. European element of culture of that time. In this way the research actualizes the heritage of fine arts preserved in Lithuanian memory institutions and explains its existence.

Laura Petrauskaitė (LKTI)

8th March 2019

"MATAS MENČINSKAS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MIGRATION OF ARTISTS FOR THE MODERNIZATION OF LITHUANIAN ART IN THE FIRST PART OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY"

Supervisor prof. dr. (hp) Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Photo: Matas Menčinskas prie savo kūrinių Buenos Airėse, apie 1930-1933. Fot. J. Pinkevičiaus. Lietuvos dailės muziejus, inv. nr. Fi-1627.

The transatlantic migration of Lithuanian artists during the first part of the twentieth century and the interwar period is a phenomenon which remains unresearched on both, national and international, levels. This fact has motivated to question the impact of migration of artists and its significance for the modernization of Lithuanian art. The main subject of research is biography and work of sculptor Matas Menčinskas (1897–1942), whose creative years were divided between South America and Lithuania. The dissertation aims to study the transatlantic migration of Menčinskas and his contemporaries, its causes, purposes, directions, types, circumstances, history and results, and to reveal migration as a cultural and social phenomenon which was driven by, and at the same time contributed to the modernization of Lithuania. Analysis of the impact of migration on the consciousness, social status, professional identity and creativity of the artist is presented in this study. The interpretative field of Menčinskas artistic legacy is expanded. In the setting of a case study the general trends of the development of Lithuanian society and culture are revealed. This interdisciplinary study is conducted in a field which combines disciplines of art criticism, history and sociology. The main approaches for research include contextual biography, social art history, theory of cultural transfers, and discourse theory. This dissertation is important in the context of global art history as it allows to fill in the gaps of knowledge related to cultural links between Baltic States, and Lithuania in particular, and South America. This study is significant in the field of Lithuanian art history as it rethinks the narrative of art history constructed from the position of Eurocentrism, approaches non-Western countries as equal ‘other’, analyses their social, political and cultural context, and studies the process of integration of Lithuanian artist in this context.

Dissertation

Giedrius Gulbinas (VDA)

20th December 2018

"THE CHANGE OF SOCIAL CRITICISM IN CONTEMPORARY ART IN LITHUANIA AT THE TURN OF THE 21ST CENTURY: IDEOLOGICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Lolita Jablonskienė

The dissertation examines change of critical paradigm in contemporary art in Lithuania from the end of the 80s to the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century and investigates political, social, economic and cultural factors which had an impact on the transformation of artists’ critical positions and artistic themes. Considering the social criticism of the second half of the 20th century as a critique based on progressive ideas that challenge status quo of the positivist thinking that shapes public life, it is possible to think of art practices based on similar intentions as a manifestation of social criticism.

The transformations of social critique in contemporary art in Lithuania analysed in this dissertation are associated with the political and intellectual breaking points: the “Rebirth” period between the 1980s and the 1990s, the strife between conservative nationalists and liberals regarding the vision of society and culture’s evolution during the 1990s, and the epistemological transformation in Lithuania’s intellectual and cultural life which began in the late 1990s and is to be associated with the dissemination of Western critical social philosophy’s ideas of the latter half of the 20th century in Lithuania.

The aspect of social criticism in contemporary art in Lithuania lacks systematically summarized approach in Lithuania, even though extensive attention to this aspect is given in Western art historiographies of the latter half of the 20th century. Considering this situation in research field of contemporary art in Lithuanian, this study may be one of the first attempts to systematically analyse socially critical artistic practices as a phenomenon and the circumstances that formed it.

Dissertation

Aistė Dičkalnytė (VDA)

14th December 2018

"THE FURNITURE MAKING IN LITHUANIA BETWEEN 1918 AND 1940: THE INTERACTION OF UNIQUE AND INDUSTRIAL DESIGN"

Supervisor dr. Dalia Klajumienė

The photo is from the Šiauliai Aušra Museum, inv. No. ŠAM F-FN 10129 (available online HERE). Photo by Bronius Elsbergas furniture set for the Kaunas Pieno Center Palace.

The researches of Lithuanian furniture making are fragmented and focused on the unique artistic design, its stylistic expression or the furniture is analyzed as the part of interior. It is impossible to see the whole picture from that point of view, because the industry which led to the modernization of the interiors, started flourishing at that time. All that encouraged to review the furniture making in Lithuania in the interwar period through the two different approaches - the unique and industrial design, pointing out their interaction. Vilnius region which is important because of the famous furniture makers and designers who lived and worked there, is also included in the research despite the fact that it was annexed by Poland at the interwar period.  The complex research of furniture making in Vilnius between 1918-1940 was made for the first time. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the Lithuanian furniture making development between 1918 and 1940, including unique and industrial furniture design, production and distribution.

The stylistic development of the interwar period furniture is analyzed in this thesis. The innovations of furniture making in the private and public interiors are revealed by the examples of unique design. The prospects of the furniture makers education in the craft schools, the subject of the interior designing and decoration of SBU Faculty of Art in Vilnius, the activity of the most famous Lithuanian furniture factories, workshops and cooperatives is also included in this dissertation.  The review of the most popular furniture models, their prices, tendencies of advertising them and the distribution in Lithuanian and foreign fairs and exhibitions are also involved. The catalog with the addresses and advertisements of furniture makers is added as a attachment.

Dissertation

Karina Simonson (LKTI)

30th November 2018

"BALTIC JEWISH PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA (1930–1976): LEON LEVSON AND ELI WEINBERG"

Supervisor prof. dr. (hp) Aleksandra Aleksandravičiūtė

Photographer Eli Weinberg. Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela Wedding in 1958.

To this day the scope of professional art history studies related to 20th and 21st century African art processes from Lithuania is very limited. This very important gap needs addressing, especially in respect to the significant impact Baltic immigrants have made on contemporary South African culture. This dissertation is dedicated to the analysis of the legacy of first generation Jewish artist immigrants in the Republic of South Africa: Leon Levson (1883–1968) and Eli Weinberg (1908–1981). It examines photographic prints and negatives, biographical texts by both photographers, statements in the press, adver­tising material for exhibitions, reviews, oral history, and others in histori­cal, cultural and socio-political contexts of South Africa.

Most of the scientific studies published are related to the integration of non-European immigrants into Western culture. The novelty and the relevance of this interdisciplinary study, which combines Art History, Jewish Studies, and African Studies, is that it attempts to discuss a very important and seldom addressed issue – the integration of an Eastern European subject, who is a representative of Western visual culture, into a non-European culture.

In order to answer this question the postcolonial framework must be adopted – insights, concepts and propositions from this framework will be deployed for an analysis of the work created in another culture. The main trends of anthropological, studio photography, social documentary and photojournalism noticeable in Levson’s and Weinberg’s artistic work, as well as impact of pictorialism are evaluated. This dissertation also raises cultural issues specific to South Africa, attempts to distil distinctive characteristics of Jewish photography in South Africa, asks if political processes of this nation, skin color and the social status of the artists has had an impact on their work, and if the work of Jewish photographers reflects on their memories of homeland.

Dissertation

Jurgita Pačkauskienė (VDA)

16th December 2016

"METAL TOMB CROSSES: A PHENOMENON - AN ARTICLE - A MONUMENT"

Supervisor dr. Skirmantė Smilingytė-Žeimienė

So far, no fundamental analysis on metal tomb crosses has been performed in Lithuania. A cross is the most typical shape of tombstone in Lithuania and metal crosses, i.e. crosses made of iron and cast iron, are a poorly researched but widely spread type of memorial monuments. A metal cross – signifying both the Christian culture and the memory of a person – can be both the work of a craftsman or artisan and also an industrially manufactured artistic item, a relic of the progress in metalworking industry, an important segment of the sepulchral heritage and a tangible source of the more and more modern Lithuania reflecting the religious, aesthetic and representational needs and financial capacity of the society.

The aim of the research: to unfold the theme of metal tomb crosses as a Lithuanian sociocultural phenomenon of early 19th century through to early 20th century.

Dissertation

Ūla Marija Tornau (VDA)

15th December 2016

"OFFICIAL AND EVERYDAY SPATIAL NARRATIVES OF SOVIET VILNIUS: LUKISKES' ACADEMIC DISTRICT"

Supervisor prof. dr. (hp) Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

The dissertation focuses on Lukiskes’ District, a part of Vilnius’ centre, which gained special importance in the post-war city reconstruction plans. The study aims to trace the history of the architectural reconstruction of Lukiskes’ District and to disclose the discrepancy between the ideological and the real cityscapes which on the one hand led to the fragmented and hybrid urban character of this part of the city, and on the other hand allowed for the interpretation of the district as the polygon of the Soviet social utopia. This created a hybrid modernity of Soviet Vilnius whose features can be recognized in the city up to this day.

The thesis continues the research on the history of Vilnius architecture adding new aspects and offering new interpretation possibilities. Research methods include micro-history, oral history and everyday history, which are not so far common in Lithuanian historiography of architecture. The multidimensional focus onto a defined territory allows to demonstrate contradictory aspects of the post-war Vilnius and to disclose the distinctiveness of the modern Soviet Lithuanian urban space.

Research addresses post-war urban visions, both well known and less studied, and follows project implementation. The thesis provides the first detailed analysis of the LSSR Science Academy Complex project as well as subsequent alternative visions for the territory and then the actual spatial identities developed here during the first two post-war decades. 

Image: Jaunimo stadionas Vilniuje 1955 m., fotografas Ilja Fišeris, Fišerio archyvas Lietuvos dailės muziejuje.

Dissertation

Indrė Užuotaitė (VDA)

21st October 2016

"THE MIRROR IN LITHUANIA FROM THE SEVENTEENTH TO THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY – A SOURCE OF THE HISTORY OF CULTURE"

Supervisor dr. Dalia Klajumienė

This dissertation is the first scholarly work offering a comprehensive insight into the history of the mirror in Lithuania. Offering a reflection of the human body, mirror transformed its self-perception and formed daily habits and rituals. One could say that the evolution of the forms and constructions of the mirror made an impact on the design of the living space – it changed the forms and functions of furniture, and influenced interior lighting and planning. The aim of the dissertation is, referring to the analysis of written and iconographic sources and surviving historical mirrors, to present the mirror as a source of the history of culture of Lithuania from the 17th to early 20th century.

In Lithuanian historiography the mirror was presented as a glass artefact or an interior detail, while a more detailed and consistent research analysing the change of the shape, functions and value of the mirror has been lacking. In the present research it is established which social classes in Lithuania were the main users of mirrors, and which rooms of secular interiors were decorated with this extraordinary element, and why; presented the analysis of the most popular types of mirrors in Europe and their application in Lithuanian interiors; the ratio of imported to locally produced mirrors is revealed along with the persons, families and subjects involved in this activity.

Image: iš grafui Stanislovu Kazimierui Kosakovskiui priklausiusio albumo Nr. 7. Vaitkuškis, 1895 m., ČDM FDS Ta 5196, fot. 19 (485)

Dissertation

Lijana Birškytė-Klimienė (LKTI)

14th October 2016

"THE TITLE OF THE DISSERTATION: THE CULT AND IMAGES OF ST. ANNE IN CATHOLIC CHURCHES OF THE GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA"

Supervisor dr. Dalia Vasiliūnienė

The research objects of the dissertation are the cult of St. Anne in the Catholicism of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (further GDL) and its visual expression – the images of Saint Anne, their diversity in the church fine arts and Catholic environment.

The cult of St. Anne and its expression in the GDL culture with reference to the representation tradition have not yet been researched. For the first time, the worship and iconography of St. Anne in Lithuania has been studied with the help of different disciplines, i.e. art history, the study of religions, the history of culture and archaeology.

The dissertation aim is to reveal the peculiarities of the development of the cult of St. Anne in the GDL based on the written, printed and visual sources, to indicate the Catholic aspects of the relations between the representation of and devotion to St. Anne in the GDL religious culture.

The work focuses on the disclosure of main historical features of the cult of St. Anne and its dynamics in various centuries, i.e. the ecclesiastical institutions and organisations that spread the cult are determined, the most popular forms of devotion are discussed, the iconographic types of St. Anne in the paintings and sculptures of Lithuanian churches are analysed. In the dissertation, the typology of the images of St. Anne in the GDL is formed, the dispersion degree of different iconographic types at various times is analysed based on the European experience and the Lithuanian legacy.

Dissertation

Ieva Burbaitė (VDA)

22nd April 2016

"ACTIVITIES AND CONTEXTS OF LITHUANIAN WOMEN ARTISTS' SOCIETY (1938-1940)"

Supervisor prof. dr. (hp) Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

The subject of the thesis is the Lithuanian Women Artists’ Society (1938–1940) and its activity, which encompasses the society’s programme, implementation thereof via group activities and individual works of its members, as well as the results of such activities. The thesis also investigates what influence the society exerted upon creative works of its members and upon the public legitimation thereof. The objective of the research is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of premises for emergence of the Lithuanian Women Artists’ Society, its activities and local/international context.

Establishment of the Lithuanian Women Artists’ Society in 1938 and the first collective exhibitions of women artists in Kaunas (1937, 1940) were fairly late phenomena. Questions arise why did women need to found a separate organisation when there was a successfully functioning Lithuanian Artists’ Union (established in 1935), featuring both men and women? What were the results of activities of the Lithuanian Women Artists’ Society? The thesis seeks to address these questions based on international context of women’s movement and by examining the state of local artistic life and women’s movement, as well as highlighting personal contributions of the most active members to the operation of the Lithuanian Women Artists’ Society. Basic theoretical approaches and methodology: the methodology of social art history, the case study method, historiographic research method, studies of historical sources.

Dissertation

Rasa Antanavičiūtė (VDA)

18th December 2015

"SYMBOLS OF POLITICAL POWER IN VILNIUS PUBLIC SPACES IN 1895-1953"

Supervisor prof. dr. (hp) Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

The history of political marking of the Vilnius city centre in the end of the 19th century – first half of the 20th century is reconstructed and analysed in the doctoral thesis. The research focuses on material markers (urban reorganizations of the city centre, construction of monuments and buildings of ideological significance), symbolic markers (competitions for projects of material markers, demonstration of national and / or state symbols, change of toponyms and functions of buildings, occasional texts) and rituals (mass events and their visual complements) realised or only designed by nine political regimes. The aim of the thesis is to analyse modern practices of symbolic marking which were based on political ideology and which were applied during the period of 1895–1953 in the public spaces of central Vilnius, and to disclose their causes, character and change. The research is based on theories of nationalism, memory and identity. Social art history is the methodology applied for examination of specific cases of political marking – political, social, cultural and economic context of their emergence is analysed, their target audience is identified, a relation of a commissioner and an executor is discussed. The method of comparative analysis is applied when juxtaposing the strategies of urban public space marking that were applied by different political regimes in the same space, i.e., Vilnius. The controversy around contemporary Vilnius commemoration signs encouraged to turn back to the beginnings of the development of modern political symbols in the city.

Dissertation

Jolanta Bernotaitytė (VDA)

12th November 2015

Supervisor dr. (hp) Laima Laučkaitė-Surgailienė

"REPRESENTATION OF LITHUANIAN ART IN THE UNITED STATES IN THE 6TH-9TH DECADES OF THE 20TH CENTURY: ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECT"

The dissertation reveals representation of Lithuanian exile art in 6th–9th decades of the 20th century and presents Lithuanian art in the United States. This is the first complex analysis of exile art life throughout Lithuanian art history which explains the principles and trends of exile art, reveals the most important factors of exile art life – art organisations, institutions, expositional activities, patronage, and also discusses art functioning in the community and outside it. According to the analysis of exile attitude towards Lithuanian art representation, arrangement of exhibitions and their interception, and with the help of systematising numerous relevant material, dissertation reconstructs the overall view of Lithuanian art life and highlights the main dominants and their correlation in the art field. Research reveals the significance of Lithuanian art organisations and institutions for the development of exile art, it also discerns the main typical aspects for representation of Lithuanian art, and finally, discovers such facts of organisational art life poorly analysed thus far.

Dissertation

Julija Fomina (LKTI)

9th October 2015

"CURATORSHIP OF ART EXHIBITIONS IN LITHUANIA: CONCEPTS AND EVOLUTION"

Supervisor dr. (hp) Erika Grigoravičienė

The dissertation focuses on the curatorship of art exhibitions, an important practice in the socio-cultural field which shapes the perception of art, institutes its meanings and creates its added value. The work examines the innovative ways of conceptualisation of art and dissemination of artistic ideas employed in the exhibitions produced by Lithuanian curators in 1988–2010, which have influenced the reception of art and partly formed the current notion of the evolution of Lithuanian visual art. A model of the development of concepts of curatorship in Lithuania between the end of the 1980s and the end of the 2000s was constructed on the basis of facts from the history of exhibition making and studies of the reception of exhibitions and their influence on field of art, with an emphasis on the precedents of creative exhibition making methods. The research is based on the methodological principles of exhibition history and the method of discourse analysis. These instruments make it possible to expose the multifaceted links between the mechanisms of production, presentation and public communication of art, and the artists, curators, institutions, audiences and critics involved in these processes. The constructed model of the evolution of the concepts of curatorship in Lithuania provides a historical perspective on the development of the Lithuanian visual art field over the last 20 years. It also reveals the trends of conceptualisation and representation of art through exhibitions, as well as important aspects of the functioning of art in society and its perception and evaluation.

Dissertation

Alantė Valtaitė-Gagač (VDA)

18th June 2015

"HISTORICAL CHANDELIERS IN LITHUANIA FROM THE 17TH CENTURY OF THE 1930s"

Supervisor dr. Dalia Klajumienė

The development and surviving examples of Lithuanian chandeliers have hardly received any research attention before. For the lack of all-inclusive and generalising research, the main problem of the dissertation is the reconstruction of the features of chandeliers, their place in historical interiors, their production and import in Lithuania and its historical territories. The main types of chandeliers developed in Europe and their production centres are presented. For the first time the author looks for manifestations of the functioning of chandeliers in different social contexts of Lithuania: the discovered references to chandeliers in the inventories of manors belonging to the nobles and the clergy, burgher’s homes, and descriptions of church chandeliers funded by patrons are analysed. The varying names of chandeliers in the written sources from the 17th to the 19th century are presented. Information of various nature found in documents is systemised: what types of chandeliers decorated residential, public and sacral buildings, from what materials they were manufactured, how many of them were hung on the premises and in what spots they were found. The thesis also reveals the value of the relatively recent chandeliers made during second half of the 19th century to the 1930s. The directions of their import in different political periods are traced. The surviving examples of chandeliers scattered in various repositories and locations have been collected and presented for the first time in The Catalogue of Surviving Chandeliers. The research has revealed the significance of chandeliers for the material culture of Lithuania. Not only the general cultural features, but also, in separate cases, the exceptionality of Lithuania in the context of the development of European chandeliers has been brought out.

Dissertation

Remigijus Venckus (VDA)

28th November 2014

"JACQUES DERRIDA DECONSTRUCTION THEORY IN VIDEO ART ANALYSIS"

Thesis based on the philosophy of Jacques Derrida, flexible segmented approaches to deconstruction are developed and applied to video art research in the thesis. In the first part of the research paper, the author analyzes the concepts of grammatology, phenomenological voice, self-present subject, spectres, etc.; distinguishes and considers the basic conceptions and describes possibilities of their application to the study of video art; introduces new words such as para-logos, beyond-logos, script-image, Reading-watching, etc. Derrida’s concepts are compared to each other in an innovative manner; for example, the concept of différance is dialectically linked to that of a specter (R. fantôme spectre), ontology is linked to hauntology (Fr. hauntologie). While transferring deconstruction into the research field of video art and expanding the application of Derrida’s concepts, the author does not evade the interdisciplinary, intervisual and similar issues with regard to video art, that are trending to cinema, fine arts and general visual culture. R. Venckus develops segmented deconstruction approaches and demonstrates their application in the second part of the thesis through the research into video art created by Aleksas Andriuškevičius, Gintaras Šeputis, Henrikas Gulbinas, Deimantas Narkevičius, Kristina Inčiūraitė and Audrius Mickevičius. The thesis is ended with consideration of the research results, evaluation of the segmented model of deconstruction, and conclusions.

Dissertation

Almantas Bružas (VDA)

24th October 2014

"THE MEANING OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTUAL LANDMARKS IMPORTANT FOR THE CITY IMAGE. THE CASE OF VILNIUS, KAUNAS, KLAIPĖDA"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Nijolė Lukšionytė

In global urban development, the construction of architectural landmarks is one of the most prominent contemporary phenomena, which has been widely observed and analysed for more than a decade. However, in urban areas, distinctive architectural objects are still often viewed through the prism of the half-century K. Lynch city perception theory. The key innovation proposed in the thesis is a construction of the research model that helps to explore the meaning of the contemporary architectural landmarks important for the city image. Methodological basis of the interdisciplinary research was the text analysis principles developed by R. Barthes, emphasizing meaningful level of an object. The theoretical aspects in the dissertation are in line with the practical ones. From 1990 to 2010, built in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda image forming contemporary architecture landmarks here were treated as a visual text. In total, 363 respondents of citizens and architects groups were interviewed in the survey and it led to the creation of the images of meaning, which consist of nine key values. The research model also reveals aesthetic, physical and some other features (exceptional location, distinctive function) of contemporary architectural landmarks, distinguishing them in the urban context. In order to process the data of the survey and to find the positive or negative correlation between the contemporary architectural landmarks’ values frequency and the distinguishing characteristics mathematical statistics methodological tools were used. It showed the differences of perception and helped to deepen the understanding the nature of contemporary architecture.

Dissertation

Lina Michelkevičė (VDA)

20th June 2014

Supervisor dr. Skaidra Trilupaitytė

"PARTICIPATORY PRACTICES IN LITHUANIAN CONTEMPORARY ART: THE PROBLEM OF CRITERIA FOR ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION"

The dissertation deals with problematic of those art practices, where an artist or a curator employs people as a project material so as to realise his/her creative purpose. Projects like this commonly expand beyond the aesthetic field: instead of representing social or political reality, they actually perform it. Therefore the dissertation aims at constructing a conceptual model that would enable to analyse problems around participatory art, as a practice operating both in aesthetic and social fields. The model is based primarily on rethinking of the classical divide between production and action (poiēsis and praxis) and the principle premise that contemporary production is increasingly becoming akin to action (Paolo Virno, Giorgio Agamben). The dissertation suggests that participatory practices are the clearest evidence of this dialectics between production and action in contemporary art. The model constructed of diverse philosophical concepts (idle talk, tactics, everyday practices, performativity, iteration) is employed for analysis of participatory art practices in Lithuania, which shows how looking through the prism of production and action foregrounds certain problems, general to participatory art (e.g. those of documentation, relation between art event and artwork, labour and entertainment, etc.). At the same time it proves to be a handy tool that helps to highlight specifics of a particular project, to question certain established prejudices, and unveil new aspects.

Dissertation

Monika Saukaitė (VDA)

17th January 2014

"NARRATIVE STRATEGIES IN ŠARŪNAS SAUKA'S PAINTINGS"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Lolita Jablonskienė

The dissertation explores the problem of visual narrativity. The object of the analysis are the works of the famous Lithuanian painter Šarūnas Sauka. Š. Sauka‘s paintings clearly seem to tell stories, although they are rarely based on any verbal stories that could serve as a source for interpretation. Instead, they are open to a wide range of individual interpretations: the viewers are provoked to narrativize the paintings by inventing stories that could explain the depicted scenes, which would otherwise remain mysterious and incomprehensible. But do the paintings themselves tell stories? Is it possible to trace narrativity in the very structure of the paintings? What concept of narrativity may be efficiently employed to analyze and understand visual texts? By what means Š. Sauka’s paintings are able to tell stories? The dissertation examines these questions by employing the French semiotics and narratology. The theoretic and methodological guidelines for the analysis of visual narrativity are formulated, linking it not only to the depiction of temporal sequences, but also to the implied transformations, to the laws of narrative grammar, and to the communication of the participants of the narrating act (the narrator and his addressee). In Š. Sauka’s paintings, the narrative strategies are elaborated by revealing the horizontal and the vertical dimensions of pictorial narrativity, as well as by examining the viewer’s and the narrator’s roles in the paintings.

Dissertation

Miglė Lebednykaitė (VDA)

21st June 2013

"FESTIVE APRONS IN THE LITHUANIAN CULTURE. 19TH CENTURY - EARLY 20TH CENTURY"

Supervisor dr. Lijana Šatavičiūtė-Natalevičienė

This doctoral dissertation analyses a part of the traditional folk costume – festive apron – which is presented not only as a garment, but also as a relatively independent and multidimensional cultural object, and a symbol of ethnic traditions and expressions of national identity. The research covers the period from the 19th century through the early 20th century. It is the first research systematically revealing the process of the apron losing its originally intended use and being given a new meaning in the first half of the 20th century, concurrently becoming a symbol and representative of national identity not only in Lithuania but also in foreign countries. The thesis analyses collections of festive aprons (including votive aprons) of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century available in Lithuanian and foreign museums that have not been previously analysed on a systematic basis. Lithuanian festive aprons identified in foreign museums during the research are valuable supplementation not only to the holdings of these museums, but also to the fund of folk textiles of this type available in Lithuania. This provides an opportunity to assess the forms of artistic expression, the peculiarities of weaving techniques of, and the fabrics used for, festive aprons which, in their entirety, can be used as an important source for reconstructing traditional folk clothing and for studies of the national costume. The research actualises the aspects of socio-cultural expression of apron, enables better knowledge of their artistic form and can serve as an important source for comparative studies of Lithuanian folk art and further research of the Lithuanian culture. 

Dissertation

Juozapas Blažiūnas (VDA)

21st June 2013

"THE HISTORY OF VILNIUS SACRAL EASEL PAINTING MANAGEMENT FROM THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY UNTIL 1939"

Supervisor dr. (hp) Rūta Janonienė

The dissertation starts with a general overview of painting restoration history in Western Europe, the analysis of the first known facts about care and maintenance of paintings in the Kingdom of Poland and Russia, and is followed by an analysis of management of sacral paintings those were located in Vilnius churches and monasteries or were a part of private collections, conducted in order to determine general historical regularities. Comprehensive research on paintings of Vilnius Bernardine Church and Monastery from the aspect of management history is a factor that reveals broader and more in-depth processes of the phenomenon under investigation.

The facts of painting management in the historical context that are presented in this dissertation reveal why these pieces of art were restored, how did the paintings change in the process of such work, what were the key factors behind choosing the pieces for restoration: was the choice based on the artist, or painting’s content, history, “heavenly origin”, “field of its miraculous influence” and respect – or just the condition of the piece.

This creates favourable conditions to examine the paintings from a chosen aspect, i.e. to analyse the history of painting restoration in a specific environment, and to compare the results of the analysis with general tendencies in Vilnius church and monastery painting management.

Due to the large volume of work, the novelty of the research and its nature, there was no intention to gather all the available data about the paintings renewed in the period under analysis, but to expose main phases of development and the shifts in the understanding of this management.

Dissertation

Ala Pihalskaya (VDA)

20th June 2013

"FORMS OF EVERYDAY REPRESENTATION IN BELARUSIAN POSTERS 1966-1980"

The aim of the dissertation Forms of Everyday Representation in Belarus posters 1966-1980  completed by Ala Pihalskaya, is to identify forms of representation of the everyday in Belarusian posters, when they were most actively produced on a mass scale in Belarus.

The research is interdisciplinary in nature, since it is based on the anthropological and sociological interpretation of the everyday proposed by Michel de Certeau, while the analysis of visual representation is made according to the constructivist approach in visual studies developed by Stuart Hall, with elements of the semiotic analysis of the figurative and plastic levels of the visual message.

The analytical model of the investigation of everyday life proposed by Michel de Certeau, which posits the simultaneous existence of oral and written paradigms that explain the logic of disparate everyday practices, make it possible to study Belarusian posters in the context of oral and written types of communication. The written paradigm actualizes cultural mechanisms that are structured according to  "law", private property, the "conquest" of space and individualization, while the oral paradigm is focused on the repetition of the familiar. In a culture where the oral type of communication dominates, "law" and private property do not matter, whereas everything that can maintain the integrity of the collective as a unity is highly appreciated.

The study shows that the figurative and plastic properties conform to the oral paradigm in  Belarusian posters, and it is this that determines the specific logic of the choice of repetition of the same composition, the imitation of mechanized labour, the practices of copying typefaces.

Dissertation

Ramutė Rachlevičiūtė (VDA)

20th December 2012

"THE SURREAL IN LITHUANIAN ART DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY"

Supervisor dr. (hp) Laima Laučkaitė-Surgailienė

Aušra Trakšelytė (VDA)

18th December 2012

"SITE-SPECIFIC ART: THEORETICAL DISCOURSE AND EXPRESSION IN LITHUANIAN CONTEMPORARY ART"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Lolita Jablonskienė

The dissertation focuses on examination of site-specific fine art works and uniformly refers to the examined art practice as site-specific art (,,įvietintas menas” in Lithuanian). For the first time in Lithuania, this paper analyzes in detail the theoretical discourse of site-specific art (in context of Western European, USA, and Lithuanian art scenes), the manifestations and dissemination of the contemporary art practice in Lithuania. The analysis of Lithuanian site-specific works in the dissertation encompasses the period form the 1990s to the present day.

The research aims theoretically substantiate the concept of site-specific art and its various models, and to identify the distinctive features of Lithuanian site-specific art in conjunction with the country’s socio-political and cultural situation.

The site as a discourse that determines creative thinking led the author of the dissertation to analyse this artistic practice in the wider context of the junction of philosophy, contemporary art theory, and fine arts practice. The chosen research approach influenced the structure of the dissertation as well. Therefore, the originality and relevance of this study lie in the attempt to perform an integrated analysis of the site as an essential element of site-specific art, concentrating on the various ways of interpreting it in theory and practice.

The present dissertation’s underlying presupposition is that a site-specific art work is an object of art criticism and theory, and simultaneously expresses a certain way of thinking itself. The site-specific work becomes an object of various reflections that correspond to specific expectations pertaining to a certain discourse field (philosophy-art theory-contemporary art practice). Such a presupposition and approach are characteristic of discourse analysis.

Dissertation

Zita Pikelytė (VDA)

14th December 2012

"PHOTOGRAPHY OF LITHUANIAN PROVINCE IN 1918-1940"

Supervisor prof. dr. (hp) Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Dissertation

Karolina Jakaitė (VDA)

7th December 2012

"LITHUANIAN GRAPHIC DESIGN IN THE 1950s-1970s: BETWEEN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Lolita Jablonskienė

Dissertation

Dijana Raudonienė (VDA)

12th October 2012

"GRAPHIC IMAGE, INTENDED FOR A BLIND PERCEIVER: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUALITY AND TACTILITY"

The arguments presented in the thesis aim to prove that an image should not be solely associated with visuality: it belongs to the field of representation, and the latter one is common to both: vision and touch (through the descriptive gesture). Otherwise, the problems of creating and perceiving images in the conditions of non-seeing remain beyond the academic discourse. However, the examples of blind painters and relatively old practice of creating images, intended to be perceived by touch, evidence the ability to understand and create images without vision and thus calls into question exclusively visual nature of images. The thesis analyses the problem of representation in tactile images aiming to answer the question what, besides tactile marks, belongs to the touch in such images. Theoretical and practical aspects of this question are closely related. Images are not only visual, if they can be developed and realised by the blind. Therefore such well-established concepts as visual expression, visual arts must be redefined or rejected: they are inaccurate insofar as they are associated with single sensory modality. In the practical context, this issue is also relevant, especially for the purpose of adjusting sighted creators’ wrong approach to the images intended for the blind perceiver (if it is possible to perceive images via touch, it is enough to have image marks in relief). Although vision and touch in many cases convey similar information about perceptible objects, this information is not identical. Therefore, aiming to create an image that would be meaningful to the blind perceiver, it is essential to understand, how the perception via touch operates without vision, and also to realise what, in addition to tactile image marks, belongs to the touch and what is the relationship between qualities perceived through touch and vision in an image.

Dissertation

Viktoras Liutkus (VDA)

9th March 2012

"THE MANIFESTATIONS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM IN LITHUANIAN ART"

Viktoras Liutkus, in his dissertation titled “The Manifestations of Constructivism in Lithuanian Art” examines historical pre-conditions and sources of influence, the acceptance of this avant-garde art movement in the culture of the country, the character of the creative work and its artistic nature, public and critical evaluation. He analyzes the manifestations related to constructivism in the other art forms, first of all in avant-garde Lithuanian literature Keturi Vėjai (The Four Winds), the current positions of thought in the arts, and the relationship of creative principles. Thesis discusses the painting, drawing, photo-montage, theoretical convictions, and the pedagogy of art of the most well known XXth Century, third decade Lithuanian avant-garde artist Vytautas Kairiūkštis. The dissertation researches on the adaptation of cubism and constructivism in Art Deco, and the emergence in Lithuanian art of new aesthetic norms. In his thesis Viktoras Liutkus compares the examples of cubism and constructivism in the neighboring Latvia and Estonia. The dissertation consists of introduction, three parts and conclusions, lists of sources and literature, illustrations and author‘s published articles related to subject of the survey.

Salomėja Jastrumskytė

21st October 2011

"CONCEPTUAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE SYNAESTHESIA PHENOMENON IN THE 18TH AND 20TH C. WESTERN ART THEORY AND PRACTICE. CRITICAL ANALYSIS"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Antanas Andrijauskas

The main subject of the present research is the multiaspect and complex analysis of the peculiarity of the synaesthesia phenomenon, its historical metamorphoses and manifestations in the Western aesthetics, art theory, and art practice of the 19th-20th c. The author seeks to critically define the limits of the main established Western conceptions of synaesthesia, demonstrating that the aesthetics, art philosophy, theoretical art criticism, art psychology, and positivist models of synaesthesia based on empirical methods arising from the Western tradition of thinking do not exhaust the multidimensionality of this unique phenomenon. The attitude towards art embracing all the senses has been alien to the Western tradition and therefore displaced; one of the objectives of this research is the necessity to legitimize it essentially.

The dissertation states that the conceptual transformations of synaesthesia phenomenon are not a peripheral phenomenon of the 19th-20th c., but mark the shifts in the paradigm of aesthetics and art theory. Diverse and controversial theoretical conceptions and practices of synaesthesia are an expression of insufficiently developed assessment of the senses in Western culture. The synaesthesia phenomenon reveals the inconsistencies, controversies, conservatism, and inertia of classic Western aesthetics and art theory. 

Complex and interdisciplinary research of the synaesthesia phenomenon is based on cultural, aesthetic, art criticism, biological, psychological, and other conceptions of synaesthesia. When analysing the influence of synaesthesia on the development of the 19th-20th c. art and aesthetics, two conceptual levels of analysis are distinguished: a) demonstration of the becoming and implications of synaesthesia as an idea; b) highlighting the development and problems of synaesthesia as a sensory and aesthetic phenomenon used in artistic practice.

Raimonda Bitinaitė-Širvinskienė

21st October 2011

"THE ARTIST AND MODERNITY ANIFESTACIONS IN LITHUANIAN THEATRE IN THE 1920s AND 1930s"

Supervisor dr. Ieva Pleikienė

Renata Dubinskaitė

20th May 2011

"DOCUMENTARY CONCEPTS AND FORMS IN LITHUANIAN VIDEO ART: BETWEEN DOCUMENTARY FILM AND VISUAL ART"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Lolita Jablonskienė

The “documentary turn” – the increasing focus on capturing and exploring reality through the use of documentary language – became evident in the international contemporary art scene in the post-1990 period, particularly after the year 2000. This turn is also responsible for the obvious proliferation of video works. The latter holds true for Lithuanian contemporary art; it is dominated by video art, the major and most notable part of which consists of documentary works. The latter demonstrate that perspectives on reality, its representation, and the documentary language itself can differ greatly – the very notion of documentary is problematic and requires a study that would link the discourses of documentary film and contemporary art.

The dissertation seeks to reveal the concepts of representation of reality that serve as the basis of documentary strategies in Lithuanian video art, as well as the documentary forms that are characteristic of Lithuanian video works – single-screen films, video installations, video films as parts of complex mixed-media installations, and video performances created between the early 1990s and the late 2000s.

The dissertation analyses the works that reflect the observational, interactive, diary, and reflexive documentary concepts, which are the most common ones in Lithuanian video art, and which are characterised by differing approaches to the factors that determine the authenticity of representation, the objectives of the work, and the function of the author. These concepts manifest themselves as specific documentary forms that are defined by the choice of objects, the principles of narrative construction, the work’s stylistic features, and so on. The analysis of the works employs the theory of documentary film, which various theorists have been developing since the early 20th century, and the examination of Lithuanian video art’s connections with the development of the documentary discourse in the history of contemporary art.

This dissertation is the first study in Lithuania that is focused on Lithuanian video art in particular, and the first study to analyse the documentary aspect of video works and link the discourses of documentary film and contemporary art.

Teresė Jurkuvienė

15th April 2011

"LITHUANIAN NATIONAL COSTUME: INTERPRETATIONS OF FOLK CLOTHING IN 20TH CENTURY"

Supervisor prof. dr. (hp) Aleksandra Aleksandravičiūtė

Eglė Jaškūnienė

7th January 2011

"LITHUANIAN APPLIED PHOTOGRAPHY IN 1953-1988"

Supervisor dr. (hp) Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Milda Žvirblytė

26th November 2010

"PICTURE AND SCREEN: LITHUANIAN PAINTING SINCE 7TH DECADE OF THE 20TH CENTURY"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Lolita Jablonskienė

Regimanta Stankevičienė

11th June 2010

"JESUS OF ANTAKALNIS: THE IMAGE, THE CULT, REPLICAS"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Irena Vaišvilaitė

Asta Giniūnienė

23rd April 2010

"THE WAY OF THE CROSS IN THE DIOCESE OF SAMOGITIA IN THE SECOND HALF ON THE 18TH CENTURY - THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY"

Supervisor dr. (hp) Rūta Janonienė

Gabija Surdokaitė

30th October 2009

"IDEA AND IMAGE OF CHRIST IN DISTRESS IN LITHUANIA FROM THE 16TH CENTURY TI THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY"

Supervisor dr. (hp) Rūta Janonienė

Jurgita Ludavičienė

22nd June 2009

"THE PHENOMENON OF KITSCH AND ITS SPREAD IN THE LITHUANIAN ART OF THE 20TH CENTURY"

Supervisor dr. Arūnas Gelūnas

Skaidrė Urbonienė

3rd April 2009

"SACRAL FOLK SCULPTURE IN THE RURAL CULTURE OF LITHUANIA (the 2nd half of the 19th c. - the 1st half of the 20th c.)"

Supervisor dr. (hp) Laima Laučkaitė-Surgailienė

Margarita Janušonienė

27th March 2009

"STATE PROTECTION OF THE ART HERITAGE IN LITHUANIA 1919-2006: HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND RESULTS"

Supervisor prof. dr. Jonas Rimantas Glemža

Danutė Zovienė

20th March 2009

"THE ARTISTIC QUALITIES OF THE CONTEMPORARY LITHUANIAN MASS PRODUCED BOOK"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Giedrė Jankevičiūtė

Auksė Kapočiūtė

17th October 2008

"THE PROBLEM OF DIFFUSION OF ART FORMS, SYMBOLS AND MOTIFS IN 20TH CENTURY COMPARATIVISTIC ART CRITICISM"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Antanas Andrijauskas

Victor Martinovich

27th June 2008

"VITEBSK AVANT-GARDE (1918-1922): SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT AND ART CRITICISM"

Supervisor dr. (hp) Laima Laučkaitė-Surgailienė

Liepa Griciūtė-Šverebienė

26th June 2008

"THE ARTISTIC FIGURATION OF CHURCH PROCESSIONS IN THE GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA: CONTENTS AND FORM"

Supervisor dr. Rūta Janonienė

Kęstutis Šapoka

11th April 2008

"DAILĖS TERAPIJA KAIP INTEGRALI SISTEMA: KONTEKSTUALI ANALIZĖ"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Antanas Andrijauskas

Vidas Poškus

16th November 2007

"THE PROBLEM OF REVIVAL OF CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY IN THE RENAISSANCE ART OF THE GREAT DUTCHY OF LITHUANIA"

Supervisor dr. Tojana Račiūnaitė

Jolanta Zabulytė

19th October 2007

"LITHUANIAN WOODEN CROSSES 19TH - MID 20 TH C. IN THE CONTEXT OF WORLD TRADITIONS"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Algis Uždavinys

Gintautė Lidžiuvienė

12th October 2007

"THE AESTHETICS OF LIFE-STYLE ADVERTISING: VISUAL AND VERBAL TEXT"

Supervisor dr. Lolita Jablonskienė

Algė Andriulytė

6th October 2006

"ARTISTIC ACTIVITY OF FERDYNAND RUSZCZYC IN VILNIUS: A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY"

Supervisor dr. Rūta Janonienė

Girėnas Povilionis

19th May 2006

"VILNIUS SCHOOL OF LATE BAROQUE ORGANBUILDING"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Aleksandra Aleksandravičiūtė

Aistė Niunkaitė-Račiūnienė

19th May 2006

"THE SYMBOLISM OF THE TRADITIONAL ART OF LITHUANIAN JEWS FROM THE VIEW OF COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Antanas Andrijauskas

Marija Drėmaitė

31st March 2006

"INDUSTRIAL ARCHITECTURE IN LITHUANIA IN 1920-1940: HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT, STYLISTIC FEATURES, CULTURAL VALUE"

Supervisor prof. dr. Nijolė Lukšionytė-Tolvaišienė

Sigita Maslauskaitė

25th January 2006

"THE CULT AND ICONOGRAPHY OF ST. CASIMIR AT THE 16TH - BEG. OF 19TH CENTURIES"

Supervisor dr. Mindaugas Paknys

Vilma Gradinskaitė

28th October 2005

"LITOS ŽYDŲ SAVIMONĖS ASPEKTAI DIASPOROS DAILĖJE"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Alfonsas Andriuškevičius

Auksė Kaladžinskaitė (KFMI)

19th October 2005

"LATE BAROQUE ART MARKET IN VILNIUS"

Supervisor dr. Aistė Paliušytė-Lugovojienė

Odeta Žukauskienė

28th September 2005

"THE PROBLEMS OF GENESIS, INTERACTION AND METAMORPHOSIS OR ART FORMS IN HENRI FOCILLON AND JURGIS BALTRUŠAITIS MEDIEVAL STUDIES (Comparative analysis)"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Antanas Andrijauskas

Agnė Narušytė

17th June 2005

"THE AESTHETICS OF BOREDOM IN LITHUANIAN PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE 1980'S"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Alfonsas Andriuškevičius

Kristina Sabaliauskaitė

10th June 2005

"ATTRIBUTION PROBLEMS OF DANIEL SCHÜLTZ (1615-1683) PAINTINGS"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Irena Vaišvilaitė

Ieva Pleikienė

11th January 2005

"LITHUANIAN SMALL GRAPHICS. FORMS OF ARTISTIC COMMUNICATION BY MAIL (1960-1990)"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Raminta Jurėnaitė

Žilvinė Gaižutytė

22nd December 2004

"THE PROBLEM OF THE SOCIAL IN ARTISTIC PRODUCTION: PIERRE BOUDIEU'S SOCIOLOGY OF ART AND ITS RECEPTION"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Antanas Andrijauskas

Rasa Janulevičiūtė

22nd December 2004

"LITHUANIAN ARTIST'S BOOK: ASPECTS OF TRADITION AND MODERNITY"

Supervisor dr. Ingrida Korsakaitė

Lina Balaišytė (KFMI)

15th October 2004

"THE ARTIST AND THE PATRON IN VILNIUS IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 17TH AND THE 18TH CENTURIES"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Aleksandra Aleksandravičiūtė

Skirmantė Žeimienė (KFMI)

30th June 2004

"DIE KIRCHLICHE KUNST IN LITAUEN IN DER ERSTEN HÄLFTE DES 20. JHS.: DETERMINIERENDE FAKTOREN"

Supervisor dr. Gražina Marija Martinaitienė

Neringa Markauskaitė

29th June 2004

"CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES OF LITHUANIAN JESUIT PROVINCE: VILNIUS PROFESSED HOUSE CHURCH OF ST CASIMIR IN THE 17TH - 18TH CENTURIES"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Laima Šinkūnaitė

Andrius Novickas

29th June 2004

"CITY SQUARE: SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF FORM AND CONTENT"

Supervisor prof. dr. Rimantas Buivydas

Vaidutė Ščiglienė

24th March 2004

"SAMOGITIAN ARTISTS OF NOBLE DESCENT IN THE LATE 19TH - FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY"

Supervisor prof. dr. Adomas Butrimas

Dalia Navikaitė

19th March 2004

"THE PROBLEM OF DEATH IN CONTEMPORARY LITHUANIAN ART"

Supervisor dr. Lolita Jablonskienė

Eglė Navickienė

26th February 2004

"NEW ARCHITECTURE IN THE HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT OF THE LARGEST LITHUANIAN CITIES (1950-2003)"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Algimantas Miškinis

Kęstutis Lupeikis

26th February 2004

"MINIMAL FORM IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE"

Supervisor prof. dr. Nijolė Bučiūtė

Ieva Diemantaitė

15th April 2003

"THE EMERGENCE AND EVOLUTION OF THE FAR EASTERN LITERATIS "FLIGHT OF THE SPIRIT" CONCEPT"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Antanas Andrijauskas

Marius Iršėnas

11th April 2003

"ANTROPOMORFINIAI IR ZOOMORFINIAI ATVAIZDAI BALTIJOS REGIONO IR EUROPINĖS RUSIJOS AKMENS AMŽIUJE: KOKYBINĖ IR KIEKYBINĖ CHARAKTERISTIKA, SKLAIDA IR YPATUMAI"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Adomas Butrimas

Rūta Pileckaitė

10th April 2003

"CONTEMPORARY LITHUANIAN JEWELLERY IN THE INTERNATIONAL APPLIED ART CONTEXT"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Aleksandra Aleksandravičiūtė

Valdas Jaskūnas

28th March 2003

"RECEPTION OF INDIAN ART IN THE WEST. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ORIENTALIST PARADIGMS"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Antanas Andrijauskas

Skaidra Trilupaitytė

23rd January 2003

"LITHUANIAN INSTITUTIONAL ARTISTIC LIFE, LATE EIGHTIES - EARLY NINETIES"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Alfonsas Andriuškevičius

Geda Bačauskaitė

17th December 2002

"BERNARD BERENSON'S CONCEPTION OF ART CRITICISM"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Antanas Andrijauskas

Stanislavas Mostauskis

29th October 2002

"THE PROBLEM OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ART AND INSANITY (integrated analysis)"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Antanas Andrijauskas

Rasa Butvilaitė-Petrauskienė

14th June 2002

"ARCHITEKTŪROS STUDIJOS LIETUVOJE (LIETUVOS DIDŽIOSIOS KUNIGAIKŠTYSTĖS TERITORIJOJE) XVIII A. II PUSĖJE - XIX A. I PUSĖJE"

Supervisor prof. dr. Algimantas Mačiulis

Margarita Jankauskaitė

30th May 2002

"MOTERIŠKOJO TAPATUMO IŠRAIŠKOS ŠIUOLAIKINĖJE LIETUVOS DAILĖJE"

Supervisor dr. Ingrida Korsakaitė

Dalia Klajumienė

26th April 2002

"XVIII a. – XIX a. PIRMOJOJE PUSĖJE ILIUZIŠKAI TAPYTI LDK BAŽNYČIŲ IR SAKRALINIŲ PASTATŲ ALTORIŲ RETABULAI"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Irena Vaišvilaitė

Jolita Liškevičienė

24th April 2002

"EMBLEMIKA XVII AMŽIAUS VILNIAUS SPAUDINIUOSE"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Rūta Janonienė

Rasa Gečaitė

14th March 2002

"THE ISSUE OF META-MANNERISM IN 20TH CENTURY ART HISTORY"

Supervisor prof. habil. dr. Algirdas Gaižutis

Mindaugas Paknys

18th January 2002

"ERSCHEINUNG DES MÄZENATENTUM IM GROSSFÜRSTENTUM IM 17 JH.: AUFTRÄGE DER KIRCHLICHEN ARCHITEKTUR"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Aleksandra Aleksandravičiūtė

Erika Grigoravičienė

15th March 2001

"ANTROPOLOGINĖS XX A. 7-10 DEŠIMTMEČIO LIETUVOS DAILĖS DIMENSIJOS"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Laima Petrusevičiūtė-Sijur

Jūratė Macnoriūtė

11th January 2001

"THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE IN PAINTAIN AND THEIR SYNTHESIS"

Supervisor assoc. prof. dr. Nijolė Tumėnienė