Lietuvos dailės muziejaus šiuolaikinės lietuvių skulptūros rinkinio istorija : Vilniaus Jeruzalės sodo skulptūrų meno autonomijos siekiai ir jų kolekcija
LTPublikacijoje, pasitelkus tarpdalykinį (meno istorija ir socialiniai mokslai) tyrimų metodą, aptariama 1962–1990 m. neformalios Vilniaus Jeruzalės sodo (toliau – Jaruzalės sodas) skulptorių bendruomenės kūrybinė veikla, meno autonomijos siekiai renkantis technologinius kūrinių atlikimo, jų eksponavimo sprendimus, socialistinio realizmo aplinkoje plėtota vėlyvojo modernizmo, postmodernizmo kūryba ir jos patekimo į LSSR valstybinio dailės muziejaus (dabar – Lietuvos dailės muziejus, LDM) rinkinius aplinkybės. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Dekoratyvioji skulptūra; Lietuvos dailės muziejus; Mažoji plastika; Menininkų bendruomenė; Skulptoriaus dirbtuvė; Skulptorių bendruomenė; Vilniaus Jeruzalės skulptorių sodas; Vladas Vildžiūnas; Šiuolaikinės lietuvių skulptūros rinkinys; Collection of contemporary Lithuanian sculpture; Community of artists; Community of sculptors; Decorative sculpture; Lithuanian art museum; Little plastic; Sculptor's workshop; The Vilnius Jerusalem Sculpture Garden; The contemporary sculpture collection; Vilnius Jeruzalė Garden; Vladas Vildžiūnas.
ENThe article discusses the activities of the Vilnius Jeruzalė Garden sculptors’ activities in 1962–1990 and their late modern and post-modern creative exploration undertaken in a socialist-realist environment. In 1962 in the Vilnius suburb of Jeruzalė, the artistic couple, sculptor Vladas Vildžiūnas (1932–2013) and graphic artist Marija Ladigaitė (b. 1931) rented part of a house in the Polish villa area that was nationalised in the inter-war period. Their home soon became an informal gathering place for like-minded souls, which eventually became the Jeruzalė Garden sculptors’ community. In 1970, as a result of the good-will of Vildžiūnas to young talented artists and his diplomacy, the executive committee of Vilnius city transferred an old Jeruzalė orchard plot to the LSSR Art Foundation and allowed temporary outdoor sculpture workshops to be installed there. The first to build their workshops here in 1972–1974 were the sculptors Gediminas Karalius and Petras Mazūras, with Stasys Kuzma (1947–2012) laying foundations on which a workshop was built by his assistant, Mindaugas Navakas, in 1980. Construction of workshops in the Jeruzalė Garden continued into the last decades of the 20th century, when Ksenija Jaroševaitė and Vladas Urbanavičius built a house with a workshop in 1998. When discussing the activities of the Jeruzalė Garden sculptors, the focus is placed on two circumstances – the goal of achieving autonomy in techniques and presentation of the works. Working together and learning from one another at the Jeruzalė Garden, a new type of creator emerged, the sculptor technologist, who, according to Navakas, brought into realisation their creative idea in granite, marble or metal themselves, from the beginning of the work (the sketch) to the finished piece, without any assistance from the State Art manufactories or censorship from commissioners.In 1967–1968, Vildžiūnas welded a decorative composition from copper tin plate called “The Three Kings”, intended for the new annex to the M.K. Čiurlionis Art Museum in Kaunas. Later on, this technique was successfully applied by Kuzma and Karalius. In the 1970s, Navakas, Mazūras, Urbanavičius and Vildžiūnas independently learned an original bronze casting technique. This was made possible through the cooperation of Lithuanian sculptor Elena Gaputytė (1921–1991), who lived in England and after her 1969 visit to the Jeruzalė Garden sent Vildžiūnas a textbook about bronze casting. The first to apply this technique, whilst still a student, was Navakas, who later installed a small (up to 20 kg) foundry called the kubilas (tub) in his workshop where he and his colleagues could cast smaller compositions. Larger works (up to 150 kg) were cast in Mazūras’ foundry located near the workshop (“under the oak”). Navakas’ workshop was and remains an important space for technical experimentation in the Jeruzalė Garden, where he not only cast in bronze or worked with marble, but also becoming interested in new materials, started forming the abstract “Volumes and Planes” series in concrete (1980–1987). Separate mention should be made of the activities of the Jeruzalė garden sculptors Vildžiūnas and Navakas in introducing new presentation practices, adding variety to the monotonous, ideologised panorama of Soviet republic and thematic exhibitions. Having become the president of the LSSR Artists’ Union’s Sculpture Section in 1977, Vildžiūnas (he served in this role until 1982) tried to unite his workshop’s efforts, combining the latest works from the Jeruzalė sculptors in presentations. He initiated the organisation of the First Medals and Sculptural Plastic Art Exhibition in 1979, and the Republic Sculpture Exhibition in 1983.In 1984–1985, an exhibition of smaller plastic art and drawings by the “sextet” from the Jeruzalė Garden sculptors was held at the Soviet Art Gallery of the USSR State Art Museum. Navakas was especially prominent in exhibiting his works in the 1980s. The author’s utopian architectural zincographic photo-montages called “Vilnius’ Notebook (1981–1986)” held at the LSSR Architects’ Union in 1986 marked the beginning of conceptual sculpture in Lithuania. A joint show by Navakas and photographers Alvydas Lukas and Gintautas Trimakas in 1987 in the Vilnius Alumni courtyard where they exhibited “Volumes and Planes” was the first case of a contextual dialogue with a public city space that aspired for sculptural objects. When discussing the circumstances how the works of the Jeruzalė Garden sculptors joined the collection of the LSSR State Art Museum, we notice the acknowledgement (legitimisation) of the creative goals of the autonomy of art. However, despite their strong impulse on the new development of post-independence art, these works make up but a fraction (61) of the 1,543 sculptures acquired between 1940 and 1990. [From the publication]
