No 21, 23 May 1970
Lithuanian Creative Unions Weekly
50 YEARS AT THE EASEL
Č. Znamierovskis was born in Latvia. He finished school in Daugavpils and then for several years has worked in different institutions. In 1912 he came to Petersburg and entered School of Arts of the Art Supporters Society. After three years of studies he passed competitive examinations to enter Higher School of Arts under Petersburg Academy of Arts. By the way, he did not complete the full programme of this school but there he acquired firm basics of academic art which in due course predetermined the character of his creation. In 1926 Č. Znamierovskis moved from Latvia to Vilnius. While being in Latvia, he already started painting (from 1920 he participated in Latvian art exhibitions). However, it is never late to learn so Č. Znamierovskis again took up art studies at Vilnius University (1926-1929).
Č. Znamierovskis’ harvest collected within half of the century is abundant: about 2300 works of art. They are widely spread over different museums of our and foreign countries, we will find his paintings in institutions, school, cafes and hostels. In 1929 Č. Znamierovskis arranged his first one-man art exhibition. There were several of them later on (the last one – in 1962). While being engaged in creative work, Č. Znamierovskis never avoided organizational and social activity: he was a member of Latvian Independent Artists’ Society, organized the Advanced Artists’ Society in Vilnius (1930) and has been a member of the LSSR Artists’ Union since 1947.
The landscape takes the major place in Č. Znamierovskis’ creation. His landscape painting is of wide range: he paints both monumental panoramic pictures and landscapes enlivened by figures of working people. Such canvases as “Salute in Vilnius”, “The Nemunas”, “Panorama of the Neris”, “The Victory Celebration in Vilnius”, “Klaipeda Port”, “Building of Bridge across the Neris”, “With Catch”, “Vilnius Panorama”, “The Green Lake”, etc. should be attributed to this kind of works. The painter is extremely fond of depicting Vilnius, its surroundings, rivers and lakes.
Hundreds of painting sketches belong to the brush of the artist. Maybe, sometimes they lack artistic completion and do not create an impression of one whole from the artistic aspect but they are spontaneous and painted from nature. If wide perspectives and spatial distances prevail in aforementioned landscape compositions, if they are full of a calm epic mood, sometimes idealizing nature, the more vivid feeling, closer relationship with nature and sincerity are characteristic of the sketches (which are usually of a small format).
As we said, the academic approach manifesting itself by accurate drawing, the colours that are close to nature and revelation of materiality and perspective is not alien to the creation of Č. Znamierovskis. These elements are most often found in his larger pictures, meanwhile more free stylistics, more sensitive and colourful brush stroke rendering richer reality is felt in the sketches of nature. On the background of our modern painting paying so much attention to the problems of colouring and texture Č. Znamierovskis’ creation can be distinguished by original attitude towards painting tasks and nature. The artist describes his point of view in the following way: “I want to approach nature as close as possible in order one could have a walk in the fields in my picture, I want it would render the mood and it would be possible to specify the season or even the time of the day”. Perhaps not everyone will consent to such definition of painting tasks but it is the artist’s right frankly to put his thoughts and emotions into words in one or another way.
We wish the Honourable Art Worker of LSSR Česlovas Znamierovskis who has reached such noble age the best creative success and health.
E. PRANULIS
Translated from: Lithuanian
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