LIFE OF KAZYS VARNELIS IN PHOTOGRAPHS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 6:30PM  /  TREČIADIENIS, KOVO 22, 6:30PM

This Event will be hosted in both lithuanian and english languages
Organized by Gintarė Bukauskienė, NY Lithuanian Community Board
Entrance - suggested donation

Gabrielė Paškevičiūtė, who is a representative at the Kazys Varnelis House Museum in Vilnius, and currently visiting New York will introduce the life and work of the artist, bibliophile, and collector Kazys Varnelis.
Kazys's son, also Kazys Varnelis, will present some remarks in response to/along with Gabriele Paskeviciute’s presentation. 

He is an architectural historian and artist who lives in Montclair, New Jersey. He has been on the faculties of Columbia University, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and the University of Limerick, Ireland and has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, and the University of Southern California. He has published a number of books dealing with the changes digital technology is causing in our lives and has exhibited in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum (in New York), and the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius. He is active in the art scene in Vilnius and is currently curating an exhibit of his father’s works from 1967 to 1977 to be shown at the National Gallery in Lithuania this summer (opening 30 July). 

Kazys Varnelis, 1917 - 2010

Kazys Varnelis -  son of the well-known Samogitian folk artist of the same name, was born in 1917 in Alsedziai, Lithuania. He finished the School of Applied and Decorative Arts in Kaunas, studying in the decorative painting studio of Stasys Ušinskas. From his youth he was interested in history and collecting. At the urging of Paulius Galaunė, he began collecting folk art while he was still a student and he founded and ran the Museum of Ecclesiastical Art in Kaunas from 1943 to 1945. Fleeing Lithuania during the War, he studied in the Vienna Art Academy from 1941 to 1943 and, while in a Displaced Persons' Camp in Germany, he met the modern art collector Ottomar Domnick, whose collection inspired him greatly. Arriving in the United Sattes, in 1949 he founded a studio of ecclesiastical art where he designed stained glasses, alters and interiors for churches (including at the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception in Putnam, Connecticut). In 1967 he was invited to teach in the City College of Chicago and he became professor there in 1973. it was during this critical five years that Varnelis developed his original style of painting, bringing together elements from constructivism, geometric abstraction, and op art. He exhibited widely in the 1970s, in venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Milwaukee Art Center, the University of Iowa Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC. Also a number of museums included his work in their permanent collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Art Institute, Akron Art Museum, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Kazys and Gabriele's house in Chicago became a museum of its own and was visited by architects and curators in Chicago. In 1978 the Varnelis family moved to an old estate in Stockbridge, Massachusetts which he restored and used to exhibit his works, as well as his collection and library. With Glasnost and later, the renewal of Lithuanian independence, Varnelis started returning to Lithuania and exhibited his work in Vilnius in 1988 and 1995 and, in 1998, Kazys and Gabriele returned to Lithuania, bringing all of Kazys's art as well as the collections of antiques and books that they had assembled over the years. In 2003 the collection was established as "Kazys Varnelis's house-museum," part of the Lithuanian National Museum.    

More information about Kazys Varnelis you can find in following links: 
lituanus.org   /   lnm.lt   /   muziejai.lt  /   FB

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Niujorke viešinti Kazio Varnelio namo muziejaus muziejininkė Gabrielė Paškevičiūtė pristatys menininko gyvenimo ir kūrybos raidos kelią bei pasidalins informacija apie menininko surinktą meno kolekciją ir biblioteką.

Kazys Varnelis 1917 - 2010

Kazys Varnelis – garsaus Žemaitijos dievdirbio sūnus, gimęs 1917 m. Alsėdžiuose. Baigė Kauno Taikomosios ir dekoratyvinės dailės institutą (Stasio Ušinsko dekoratyvinės tapybos studiją). Nuo pat jaunystės domėjosi istorija ir kolekcionavimu: liaudies meno dirbinius rinko dar būdamas studentu, paskatintas Pauliaus Galaunės. Muziejinio darbo patirties įgijo vadovaudamas Bažnytinio meno muziejui Kaune (1941–1943). Akiratį praplėtė studijuodamas Vienos dailės akademijoje (1943-1945), Štutgarte susipažinęs su modernaus meno kolekcionieriumi Ottomaru Domnicku. 1949 m. Varnelis Čikagoje įsteigė bažnytinio meno dirbtuves, kūrė vitražus, altorius, interjerus bažnyčioms. 1967 m. buvo pakviestas dėstyti Čikagos miesto koledže, kur 1973 m. jam buvo suteiktas profesoriaus vardas. Šis periodas buvo ypač svarbus Varnelio kūryboje: tuo metu susiformavo originalus jo tapybos stilius, vienijantis konstruktyvizmo, minimalizmo ir optinės dailės elementus; jis įsitvirtino Čikagos moderniojo meno avangarde, surengė personalines parodas Čikagoje, Vašingtone, Milvauke, Iova Sityje, Vilniuje (1988). Jo kūrinių yra įsigiję Guggenheimo muziejus Niujorke, Šiuolaikinio meno muziejus Čikagoje, taip pat Iovos, Budapešto ir Vilniaus dailės muziejai, Čikagos, Akrono, Detroito dailės institutai bei privatūs kolekcininkai.
Kazio ir Gabrielės Varnelių namai Čikagoje tapo savotišku muziejumi, stebinusiu žymiausius Čikagos architektus ir parodų kuratorius. 1978 m. Varnelių šeima persikėlė į Villa Virginia sodybą (Stokbridže, Massačiusetsas), kurios erdviose salėse įsikūrė nuolat gausinama kolekcija ir biblioteka.
Lietuvai atkūrus nepriklausomybę, 1998 m. Kazys ir Gabrielė Varneliai grįžo į Lietuvą, atsiveždami kolekciją. Jos pagrindu Vilniuje buvo įsteigtas Kazio Varnelio muziejus. 2003 m. jo kolekcijai suteiktas nacionalinis statusas, jis tapo Lietuvos nacionalinio muziejaus filialu „Kazio Varnelio namai – muziejus“.

Daugiau informacijos apie Kazį Varnelį:
lituanus.org   /    lnm.lt   /   muziejai.lt   /   FB

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