Beatricė Kleizaitė-Vasaris Art Gallery

In 2014, Beatrice Kleizaite-Vasaris Art Gallery was opened in the center of Marijampole, in the former Synagogue and now Meile Luksiene Education Center. In the unique building, four rooms are dedicated to Beatrice Kleizaite art collection that was gathered throughout the years and gifted to the capital of Suduva (as well as to the region and Lithuania in general). Majority of the collected art is by expatriate artists who always had Lithuania in their hearts, including Adomas Galdikas, Vytautas Kasuba, Vytautas Ignas, Albinas Elskus, Viktoras Vizgirdas, Romas Viesulas, Pranas Gailius, Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas, Kazimieras Leonardas Zaromskis, Stasys Eidrigevicius, Pranas Lape, Vaclovas Ratas, Juozas Bagdonas; as well as artists who live (or lived) in Lithuania and added meaning to the Lithuanian national and cultural identity.

The collection reflects Beatrice‘s aim to preserve the artworks of Lithuanian artists, who wandered to other parts of the world, and bring the art back to Lithuania in order to better understand and acknowledge the creativity of local artists. It is interesting that some artists retained their original artistic style. For example, V. Vizgirda maintained the post-impressionist traditions of Lithuanian painting while living in the USA. V. Ignas had always been sentimental about everything Lithuanian and Baltic – all that separates our culture from others. He drew inspiration from the treasury of folk art and combined the Baltic worldview with professional art aspirations. Others, influenced by foreign environment and modern art, decided to start looking for new paths and began experimenting and trying to discover something original. A. Galdikas shifted from the figurative art movement to abstract expressionism; P. Lape, fascinated by J. Pollock’s gesture painting, also switched to abstract expressionism; K. L. Zaromskis experimented with pop art style and later created his own original branch of pop art – optical impressionism; P. Gailius invented a new distinctive abstract art technique – a combination of colour, font and dimensional contour. The respect for national diaspora needs and traditions was a characteristic of V. K. Jonynas and V. Kašuba, however, while adjusting to other social and artistic environments, it was impossible not to follow their local changes and requirements. Nevertheless, V. Kašuba remained a Lithuanian patriot his entire life.

The collection is diversified by several foreign paintings by Spanish, Italian and Jewish artists.