Meninės idėjos ir nacionalumas XIX a. pabaigos - XX a. pradžios Lietuvos dailėje

Abstract

In this article, the aspects of national self-awareness in the Lithuania of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries are ventilated by invoking biographies and creation of artists. Tadas Daugirdas represents the members of such posture, who want to acknowledge the peculiarities of the Lithuanian nation and to express them in creation. Stanislovas Vitkevičius represents the ones under the influence of polonization; the posture of those, who while speaking Polish, though still feeling as the offspring of The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, markedly lean to the Polish culture. The aim of this article is to analyze the creation of artists who represent different postures of national identity, revealing possible interactions between the artistic ideas and decisions taken by the persons themselves with regard to the national dependence. The commonly used formulas (the components of which may be language, historical memory, customs, and traditions) are not meant for defining the national self-awareness of the Lithuanians of the analyzed period. Every person tackled the dilemma of being either Lithuanian or Polish individually and “drew“ the dividing lines inside themselves. It was difficult to take the decisions and they were accompanied by both external and inner conflicts. A wish to integrate into the Lithuanian nation and to create a national state was a big challenge, which meant conflicts with the bigger part of the members of the landed nobility and the change of the social position. The expression of national peculiarity in the fine arts’ creation was influenced by the dominant trend of the art at the particular time. It sometimes turns out that what was thought to be peculiar and unique, when looking from the common European art’s context assumes the touch of universality.[...]