Address
3 J. Zikaro St, LT-44261, Kaunas.
Tel.: +370-37-223205, +370-652-13621.
Visits by arrangement. Tel. +370-652-13621.
Opening times
Tuesday to Sunday 11.00-17.00.
Exposition
The museum was founded in the home of the
sculptor, and designer of the monument “Laisve” (Liberty), Juozas
Zikaras (1881-1944).
On display are sketches of his well-known works, drawings, plaster model
and sculptures.
Juozas
Zikaras
J. Zikaras (1881-1944), sculptor, born in
Paliukai, county of Panevezys.
During 1904-1906 he studied in Vilnius at Trutnev’s Drawing School and
in the evenings attended the drawing courses given by J. Montvila. His
drawings were rated favourably and exhibited in students’ art shows.
Still extant are his earliest works, which already surpass the average
student’s efforts, among them his father’s bust, portrait in relief of
poet Adam Mickiewicz and the statuettes Moteris (Woman) and Senis su
kailiniais (Old Man in Fur Coat).
At that time the first exhibition of Lithuanian artists (Dec. 1906) was
being organised in Vilnius. From St. Petersburg, Russia, where he had gone
to continue his studies, Zikaras sent three small statuettes to be
exhibited: Is Tilzes (From Tilze), Mergaite su gelemis (Girl with
Flowers), and Bedarbis (Unemployed). None of these has survived. The
sculpture Is Tilzes portrayed a man with a sack on his back full of
Lithuanian books banned by the Russian government.
In St. Petersburg he studied at first at the school of the Society for the
Encouragement of Fine Arts (1907), and in 1910 he was accepted into the
Academy of Fine Arts. He completed the course of study in 1915 and began
work on his diploma sculpture but was mobilised for service into the
Russian army. Although unfinished, his sculpture Motina (Mother) was
included in the graduating students’ exhibit and was met with approval.
Zikaras was called before the council of the Academy’s professors and
presented with a diploma and a silver award (1916). After demobilisation
he taught at secondary schools in Petrograd.
Having returned to Lithuania (1918), he taught drawing for many years at
the Panevezys high school and the Pedagogic Seminary.
In 1929 he was invited to head the sculpture studio of the Art School in
Kaunas, remaining in this position until 1940. When the school was
reorganised into the Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts, he taught
drawing here. After the second Soviet Union occupation of Lithuania, he
was promoted to professor and was given the chairmanship of the sculpture
and ceramics department, but in that same year he took his own life on
Nov. 10, 1944.
Photo from Juozas Zikaras
Museum
