THE AGE OF LIGHT
Retrospective of Lithuanian Stained Glass
The exhibition presents the school of professional Lithuanian stained glass dating back to the 1980s; the stained glass artists who formed it and taught here, as well as a collection of students works, covering a wide range of the concept of stained glass, its compositional and technological searches, revealing the development of stained glass from the middle of the 20th century monumental, architectural-scale thematic figurative compositions to todays conceptual glass artworks.
The begining of Lithuanian stained glass school is associated with Prof. Stasys Ušinskas who founded the stained glass studio in Kaunas Art School in 1934. The tradition of stained glass specialization has been continuing to this day where students can enroll into State Specific Art Study Programme at Vilnius Academy of Arts. There are very few art schools in Europe and the world where stained glass is taught as a separate Study Programme. Vilnius Academy of Arts is proud of taking over the legacy of Kaunas Art School which is celebrating its centenary this year, the experience, methodology and technological experience of the State Art Institute in Vilnius (to which the stained glass study was transferred from Kaunas in 1951) and successfully continues this specific Study Programme.
For the first time the exhibition aims to introduce the professors who were teaching stained glass, to reveal the development of stained glass since the first professional stained glass artworks created by the founder of the school Prof. Stasys Ušinskas. The exhibition presents the artworks of the artists who continued his work in Vilnius: Prof. Algimantas Stoškus and Prof. Kazys Morkūnas monumental lutic and classical thin glass stained glass compositions, as well as Eglė Valiūtė, Assoc. Prof. Konstantinas Šatūnas, Prof. Algirdas Dovydėnas, Assoc. Prof. Bronius Bružas, Assoc. Prof. Ignas Meidus, Rasa Grybaitė, Assoc. Prof. Ieva Paltanavičiūtė, Assoc. Prof. Žydrūnas Mirinavičius, as well as the creations of Antanas Garbauskas, who taught stained glass at the National M.K. Čiurlionis School of Arts. Next to acclaimed stained glass artists, students' works are exhibited: term and final creative projects that reveal the methodology of teaching stained glass and a wide range of technologies.
The exhibition displays projects of stained glass in architecture, life-size preparatory drawings (cardboards), photographs of stained glass in architecture, as well as chamber-scale glass works realized with various techniques such as classic thin glass stained glass, examples of dalle de verre glass, works created by glass slumping, casting in mold and other techniques.
Exhibition curator, Site-specific Art and Scenography department Assoc. Prof. Žydrūnas Mirinavičius
