| Abstract [eng] |
The transatlantic migration of Lithuanian artists during the first part of the twentieth century and the interwar period is a phenomenon which remains unresearched on both, national and international, levels. This fact has motivated to question the impact of migration of artists and its significance for the modernization of Lithuanian art. The main subject of research is biography and work of sculptor Matas Menčinskas (1897–1942), whose creative years were divided between South America and Lithuania. The dissertation aims to study the transatlantic migration of Menčinskas and his contemporaries, its causes, purposes, directions, types, circumstances, history and results, and to reveal migration as a cultural and social phenomenon which was driven by, and at the same time contributed to the modernization of Lithuania. Analysis of the impact of migration on the consciousness, social status, professional identity and creativity of the artist is presented in this study. The interpretative field of Menčinskas artistic legacy is expanded. In the setting of a case study the general trends of the development of Lithuanian society and culture are revealed. This interdisciplinary study is conducted in a field which combines disciplines of art criticism, history and sociology. The main approaches for research include contextual biography, social art history, theory of cultural transfers, and discourse theory. This dissertation is important in the context of global art history as it allows to fill in the gaps of knowledge related to cultural links between Baltic States, and Lithuania in particular, and South America. This study is significant in the field of Lithuanian art history as it rethinks the narrative of art history constructed from the position of Eurocentrism, approaches non-Western countries as equal ‘other’, analyses their social, political and cultural context, and studies the process of integration of Lithuanian artist in this context. |
