“Literature and Art”
No 48, 01 December 1962
Lithuanian Writers’ Union Weekly
REPORT ON 40 YEARS
OF CREATIVE WORK
No 48, 01 December 1962
Lithuanian Writers’ Union Weekly
REPORT ON 40 YEARS
OF CREATIVE WORK
Over 300 works of painting created within more than 40 years – such was the harvest of creation exhibited by artist Česlovas Znamierovskis in the halls of Vilnius Art Museum not long ago.
Born and grown up in Latvia, Č. Znamierovskis attended a few schools of art and studied at Petersburg Academy of Art where he obtained firm basics of drawing and painting; from 1926 he started living in Vilnius and studied subjects of art at Vilnius University.
The landscapes, most often calm views of the specific drawing, sometimes with more vivid and sometimes with subdued colouring, are most important in the painter’s creation. The artist is sensitive to the beauty of nature, subtly grasps its specifics and feels the rhythm of the picture composition lines. The creation of Č. Znamierovskis is not “modern” and his palette does not sparkle with colours but the spectator feels aesthetic admiration while looking at the painter’s works.
Most of his landscapes represent Lithuanian nature, Vilnius, its environs, the river Nemunas and other beautiful sites of our country. We often meet landscapes with an early spring motif in the creation of the artist. From them that are more uniform with respect to colour “A Spring Motif” in which the river in flood and remains of the thawing snow create the mood of the approaching spring could be distinguished. Č. Znamierovskis finds peculiar beauty and mood in nature during every season. In summer the painter is attracted by rivers meandering through green fields and forests, murmuring brooks, in autumn – trees in yellow (“The Neris. Autumn”) and in winter – dormant nature (“Cold Morning”). The views of the Tatra and Caucasus mountains covered with everlasting snow and painted in cool colours (“The Winter in Mountains”) are an interesting contrast to the Lithuanian landscape. Cheerful are the landscapes of the seaside in Palanga and the Black Sea (“The Wind from the Sea”) in which the beauty of the choppy sea is revealed by rhythm of waves and colour tones changing from contrasting to pastel ones.
Part of Č. Znamierovskis’ landscapes, especially of the later period, is of the genre nature; the figure elements brought into the canvas make it more vivid and richer and relate nature with the human mood (“The Green Lake”, “Palanga Dunes”).
While creating landscapes, first of all, the artist usually paints a number of sketches from nature which most often are laconic, fresh and permeated with spontaneous impression (“An Autumn Motif”, “Chosta. A Park Fragment”, “A Sea Motif”); these works are easily noticed as they are picturesque and attract the spectator’s glance. However, it seems that the large format paintings of the artist have less warmth, generalization and the range of colours is narrower; in these pictures greater attention is paid to composition, image and drawing and the materiality of nature is emphasized.
Č. Znamierovskis also works in the genres of the portrait and still life (“Wife’s Portrait”, “A Sketch”, “Flowers”, “Dahlias”) but in this field his talent manifests itself weaker than in the landscape. Having painted in an academic style for many years, recently the artist tries to seek a closer relation with the today’s painting and new tendencies of our art in his landscapes.
O. JASKŪNAITE
Born and grown up in Latvia, Č. Znamierovskis attended a few schools of art and studied at Petersburg Academy of Art where he obtained firm basics of drawing and painting; from 1926 he started living in Vilnius and studied subjects of art at Vilnius University.
The landscapes, most often calm views of the specific drawing, sometimes with more vivid and sometimes with subdued colouring, are most important in the painter’s creation. The artist is sensitive to the beauty of nature, subtly grasps its specifics and feels the rhythm of the picture composition lines. The creation of Č. Znamierovskis is not “modern” and his palette does not sparkle with colours but the spectator feels aesthetic admiration while looking at the painter’s works.
Most of his landscapes represent Lithuanian nature, Vilnius, its environs, the river Nemunas and other beautiful sites of our country. We often meet landscapes with an early spring motif in the creation of the artist. From them that are more uniform with respect to colour “A Spring Motif” in which the river in flood and remains of the thawing snow create the mood of the approaching spring could be distinguished. Č. Znamierovskis finds peculiar beauty and mood in nature during every season. In summer the painter is attracted by rivers meandering through green fields and forests, murmuring brooks, in autumn – trees in yellow (“The Neris. Autumn”) and in winter – dormant nature (“Cold Morning”). The views of the Tatra and Caucasus mountains covered with everlasting snow and painted in cool colours (“The Winter in Mountains”) are an interesting contrast to the Lithuanian landscape. Cheerful are the landscapes of the seaside in Palanga and the Black Sea (“The Wind from the Sea”) in which the beauty of the choppy sea is revealed by rhythm of waves and colour tones changing from contrasting to pastel ones.
Part of Č. Znamierovskis’ landscapes, especially of the later period, is of the genre nature; the figure elements brought into the canvas make it more vivid and richer and relate nature with the human mood (“The Green Lake”, “Palanga Dunes”).
While creating landscapes, first of all, the artist usually paints a number of sketches from nature which most often are laconic, fresh and permeated with spontaneous impression (“An Autumn Motif”, “Chosta. A Park Fragment”, “A Sea Motif”); these works are easily noticed as they are picturesque and attract the spectator’s glance. However, it seems that the large format paintings of the artist have less warmth, generalization and the range of colours is narrower; in these pictures greater attention is paid to composition, image and drawing and the materiality of nature is emphasized.
Č. Znamierovskis also works in the genres of the portrait and still life (“Wife’s Portrait”, “A Sketch”, “Flowers”, “Dahlias”) but in this field his talent manifests itself weaker than in the landscape. Having painted in an academic style for many years, recently the artist tries to seek a closer relation with the today’s painting and new tendencies of our art in his landscapes.
O. JASKŪNAITE
Translation: Vilnius Translation Bureau "DANUSTA" (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Translated from: Lithuanian
Originals:
Translated from: Lithuanian
Originals:
Source: Mazvydo National Library (Vilnius, Lithuania) // Mazvydo Nacionaline Biblioteka
Library reference card:
Library reference card: