| dc.description.abstract | The Lithuanian artist Boleslovas Motuza-Matuzevičius (1910-1990) was mainly a painter, but he also employed other techniques as well: aquarelle, carving, and mosaic. He was born in Riga and grew up in the small Lithuanian town of Kupiškis. During 1928-1935, he studied monumental art at the Kaunas School of Art. Being socially active, Boleslovas joined the Lithuanian Communist Party. He went to study in Moscow, but after crossing the border, he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in gulag labour camps in Ukhta, where he worked on oilrigs, in road construction, and in lumbering. After sustaining severe injuries, Boleslovas ended up in the camp hospital and was ordered by the administration to paint various posters. He used this opportunity to secretly create works of his own, which depicted barren northern landscapes during various seasons, the mystical light of the moon, illustrations for romantic poems by Edgar Allan Poe, and portraits of other prisoners. His paintings were smuggled out of the camp zone. In Ukhta, Boleslovas Motuza created nearly 200 works of art and succeeded in bringing most of them to Lithuania – an extraordinary feat that was unheard of in the history of the gulags. In the camp he met his future wife, Elga, who was also a prisoner, working as a nurse at the camp hospital. Their first son, Augustas, was born in the gulag but did not survive because of the harsh conditions. In 1946 Boleslovas returned to Lithuania, but his rights were restricted: he was not allowed to live in the capital Vilnius and was fired from his job as a lecturer at the Art Institute. Because of limited opportunities to pursue creative work, he slumped into a daily rut. However, he continued to paint landscapes, still-lifes, and portraits. His most prominent work of that period was the restoration of the ancient wall paintings of Vilnius University. In 1958 Boleslovas Motuza was officially rehabilitated. He moved back to Vilnius, got a studio, and could dedicate himself to creative work. He liked to travel across Lithuania, paint landscapes, and study folk art. The main objects of his paintings were the coast of the Baltic Sea, small Lithuanian towns, particularly his native town – Kupiškis, the romantic landscape of eastern Lithuania with its hills and lakes. He also took the opportunity to visit other countries – the Crimea, Poland, and Yugoslavia – and always brought back paintings, drawings, and impressions recorded in his diaries. Boleslovas Motuza was a very productive artist. He created nearly a thousand oil paintings, hundreds of aquarelles, graphics, thousands of drawings, which are of substantive value, a few mosaics – some of which adorn churches in Kaunas and Ukmergė. The main part of his heritage is at the National Museum of Lithuania and the Lithuanian National Museum of Art. Along with paintings, he also expressed himself through poetry: he left hundreds of verses, but none of them were published. For a few decades, he kept a diary almost every day, and it was devoted not to recording everyday events, but was rather a monolog, a conversation of the artist with himself. Here, he noted his thoughts about art, his surroundings, environment, friends, and accidental fellow travellers. The diaries of Boleslovas Motuza constitute the main part of this text. They are presented with the comments of his son Gediminas, who compiled this book. However, his diaries are not the main purpose of this monograph. They are only the background, a medium, the link between the invisible inner world of an artist and his art works, which presentation is the main purpose of this book. | eng |
