Audrone's home: FOLK ART IN LITHUANIA


FOLK ART IN LITHUANIA
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Since of old each Lithuanian woman takes pride in textiles of her own make. The contemporary art of weaving has two trends.

First, when ornaments of textiles are taken over from the end of the 19th-the beginning of the 20th centuries and further developed.

The other trend employs a two -thread openwork technique that became popular in the middle of 20th century. In table-covers, large and small, it is joined with thrust- in ornaments. Pleasant to the eye are consonance of raw and bleached flax, those of white cotton. Woolen textile has preserved the old and calm combinations of moderate colors.

Until recently all the fabric for Lithuanian folk garments was woven at home; each household had a spinning wheel and a loom for weaving. As young women, taught the arts of spinning and weaving at a very early age, prepared for wedlock, they filled their dowry chests with household linen and clothing, not only for their own future use but also as presents for others.
The handlooms were used by Lithuanian women in the home to weave flax, hemp, wool, cotton or silk yarn into sheets, pillowcases, towels, tablecloths, bedspreads, rugs, saddle-cloths, clothing, and the ever-present sash. Patterns usually were geometric (squares, stars, crosses), stylized plants (tulips, lilies, firs, leaves) or stylized animals.

Often several looms were used in the creation of a single intricate woven fabric. Nowadays the famous folk masters are weaving the nice fabrics and garments at home too.

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KNITWEAR

Knit articles are a beautiful and lovely decoration of the ancient Lithuanian interior and clothing. Folk' masters up to now use the techniques of hand weaving, knitting and crocheting. Crocheted articles reiterate the recreated in one's own way geometrical patterns at the edges of textiles that were very popular with the knitters in the 19th century.
Thus are embellished edges of towels and slipcovers, tablecloths, large and small, national women's caps that now return to use. Openwork linen tablecloths, knit or crocheted, are popular again. Good-looking and convenient for wearing are woolen knitwear - socks, mittens, and mufflers - especially double- and parti-colored, decorated with moderate geometrical ornaments that have come out of grandmothers' coffers.

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NATIONAL SASHES

Frequently mentioned in folk songs and legends and frequently given as a gift, the juosta (sash) is the prototype Lithuanian woven article and comes in a variety of widths and lengths. Juostos have been used, among others things, as bookmarks, neckties, accent pieces, and also widened into table runners.
National sashes are a traditional and ancient branch of Lithuanian folk art that lately has been reviving. At present hand-woven sashes, especially those that reveal the taste of the Lithuanian people for coloration took a new start.

Wooden articles since of old do dominate in Lithuania. Working tools, household articles, sledges, carts with harness, furniture, architectural details were being carved. In the course of time carving principles characteristic of the Lithuanians were formed, i.e., precision of performance, moderation, the completeness of composition, the usage of meaningful symbols. We may notice that during national revival the interest for spindles, carved spoons, small coffers and towel-racks increases. The people want to revive the symbolical meaning of the ornaments that their memory contains.

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WICKERWORK

Various household and domestic articles: basket and wicker baskets, cheese-sacks, bags, cases, lamp-shades, etc. are woven since of old. Light, good-looking and convenient wicker articles are in great demand. Before the beginning of the 20th century wicker furniture was very popular in estates and parsonages, especially in country residences. No wonder, the circle of the life spiral turned round and the craft of folk art that was somehow forgotten has revived again: wicker articles fit fine the interior of houses in towns and in the country-side, they decorate villas and garden cottages, any recreation site and sanatorium gain much from their presence.

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WOODEN SCULPTURE AND VARIATIONS IN WOOD

Contemporary Lithuanian folk sculpture leans upon and has adopted the experience and features of the rich traditional folk sculpture. At the expositions of folk art sculpture still takes a dominant place.
Crosses And miniature chapels once dotted the Lithuanian countryside, its farmsteads and waysides. And not a single home went without one or more crucifixes adorning its walls. Infinitely varied in shape and ornamentation, the crosses and shrines are to be counted among the most original and remarkable creations of Lithuanian folk art.

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MONUMENTAL SCULPTURE

The tendencies of contemporary Lithuanian folk art were most clearly expressed in monumental sculpture, the revival and flourishing of which gave prestige to the entire national creation and became the important phenomenon of Lithuanian national culture.
The Ablinga memorial Ensemble, created in 1972, is considered to be the starting point of revival. Ablinga that contained rich folk art traditions not only enriched them, but also was the start of a new folk art tradition which was qualitatively new.

New ensembles were created, of which especially significant is "Ciurlionis' Road". Quite a lot of monumental sculptures are erected singly and in groups on the sites of historical and literary importance, in cemeteries.

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PAPER CUTS

Each nation has accumulated its own and special means for expressing a thought, associative thinking and world outlook. One of these is paper cutting. In Lithuania this branch of folk art started to form in the 14 century. Letters of Grand Duke Vytautas, containing the samples of paper-cuts, have survived.
Paper cuttings is an original branch of art, many unique works of which have been created by painters, folk and other artists. In Lithuania the art of paper cutting took a spontaneous way of development - as a branch of applied arts. Paper cuttings were especially popular in the country. Before Christmas, on wedding-party and other occasions people used to decorate their rooms, windows, lamps and frames of holy pictures with cot-out starlets, flowers and blinds… The first samples of paper-cuttings are found in juridical acts of the 16th - 18 th centuries. They are small patches of paper, shaped in the form of rhomb or circle and stuck to the document with wax, like blotting-pad for seal. The authors of these cuttings are still unknown. Clarks themselves might have two - or-four folded the document, decorated the exterior part with a baroque winding line, which was usually animated sharp - ended or oval jutting, bigger spaces were usually decorated with oval or rhomb - shaped perforations. Paper-cuttings became part of Lithuanian peasant culture some time later, when paper became cheaper, and in the manors and towns crocheted and embroidered interior decorations gained popularity.

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PAINTINGS

Painters in Lithuania are numerous, in number they exceed more than one contemporary branch of folk art. They vary in age and education, as do trends of their creation. The most distinct among them are primitivists, those who were not in touch with art sciences and who started painting most often at the elder age, and the so-called amateur artists, those who search for sample and inspiration in professional academic art, who more or less mostly studied it. The works of primitivists reflect their individuality especially vividly. A very clear relation of their thinking and world perception with traditions is seen. Their creation is often inspired by vivid reminiscences (childhood experiences, views of national holidays, labor and ethnographic scenes, landscapes, impressions of the present reality.

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CERAMICS

Lithuanian ceramics gained fame due to the simplicity of its forms, floral and geometrical decor, reliability of domestic articles and their unique beauty: jugs, coffee -sets, flowers pots, vases for various purposes, plates, ash-trays, candle-sticks and other household pottery. A moderate and mysterious color of a coal and ash mix characteristic of Lithuanian ceramics makes pottery articles nobler. Black ceramics has been known since Antiquity. Later it spread in Europe, including Lithuania. Now it is extremely popular.

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FOLK ARTISTIC SMITHERY

Artistic smithery is one of the folk art branches with very deep ethnic traditions. Various metals (including non- ferrous) are known to be used in Lithuania even at the second millennium BC Mostly they were used for decoration. Much later (from the first millennium AD) forged metal began to be used more and more frequently in household, in the production of agricultural implements and transport means furniture decoration, etc. Forged metal was extensively used in forging various memorial monuments in the 13th-19th centuries. All these metalwork traditions are inherited by the contemporary Lithuanian smiths-folk masters, who have united into the Lithuanian Folk Art Society.

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JEWELLERY

Member has been worked and used as a material for adornments since Neolithic times. Finds from ancient settlements in the Curonian Spit Šventoji and Palanga evidence about it. The Lithuanians were not only good at processing that stone, but also loved it and endowed it with magic power.
At present the working of amber is very popular in Lithuania. Hand-made adornments of folk masters-jewelers have traveled all over the world… They include brooches, beads, amulets, strings of amber, bracelets, hangers, etc.

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EASTER EGGS - MARGUČIAI

The Lithuanian as many other nations of the World considered Easter eggs to symbolize life, the Good, and nature awakening. They are an attribute of ceremonies and rites on St.George's Day, Easter and Sunday after Easter. These folk art articles are one of the most fragile. Their earliest samples have survived only from the end of the 19th century. Their ornamentation, however, is encountered even in the decorations and ceramics of the primitive communal period.

According to the ancient custom, eggs in Lithuania are painted with natural, more rarely with aniline dyes. They are ornamented with melt wax or by scraping. It is habitual, the past years including that almost each family in towns and villages has colored eggs for the spring holiday. This art is also popular with numerous folk masters engaged in various branches of folk art.

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PALM BRANCHES

The folk masters also weave not large ritual palms that are sold on the far-famed Kaziukas market or on Palm Sunday near the churches. Most of them remind bed-covers from southeastern Lithuania. The weavers like to combine various shades of violet, beet-colored and brown flower blossoms with natural ryes and timothy grasses. The palm branches are crowned with luxuriant brushes of reeds and bents. Palm branches, the same as Easter eggs, bring joy to life and enliven exhibition stands.

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Last modified:
18-12-2004