LITUANUS
LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
 
Volume 17, No.2 - Summer 1971
Editors of this issue: Antanas Klimas, Ignas K.Skrupskelis
Copyright © 1971 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.
Lituanus

THE ART OF GIEDRĖ ŽUMBAKIS

Giedrė Žumbakis, born in Lithuania in 1940, came to Chicago in 1949. She received her B. A. from Xavier College and did graduate work in enameling and painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. An active exhibitor, has participated in various regional and local American and Lithuanian art shows: in Chicago — the Čiurlionis Art Gallery, McCormick Place, Barret College. She held individual shows at the Lithuanian Culture Center in New York City, the Chicago Lawn Public Library, DRAUGAS in Chicago, and Xavier College.

She is a member of the Chicago Artists Club. Her work is accepted regularly by the Chicago Art Institute's Sales and Rental Gallery. She has designed the mosaic altar top in the Newman Club's Chapel at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb. Private collectors own a number of her works.

Her work is abstract. She is not a landscapist nor a figurative artist. Her adopted medium is enamels. She exercises a particularly strong command over this difficult technique, and her creative, spiritual powers are best revealed in them. Responsive to a contemporary art trend of almost radical individualism, Mrs, Žumbakis' expressionism breaks into a new lyricism. It deals in an exciting way with space and color. With clear, attractive color and linear accents, she manages to provide at time a genuine and unexpected mythopoetic experience. Her calligraphic use of line recalls Kandinsky — as do the peculiar fairy-like wraiths of her color forms. The earlier works, vivid in color, are decorative in feeling. Her latest enamels in reds, muted and with nuances of other colors, are remarkable in their subtlety and spirituality. One finds a dazzling display of color virtuosity as one moves from a foundation-colored ground to paint swirls overlaid. The receding and advancing effects of color coupled with curves sweep into and back into an abysmal depth, creating strange and exiting spiritual inventions.

In a sense, Giedrė Žumbakis has achieved a unique individual vision in her enamels.

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"Eternal continuum"

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"Beyond reach"

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"Water swirls"

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"Flaming poppy"

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Whisper of light

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"Earth bound"

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"Underwater"

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"Dawn's mirage"

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"Trembling in the winds"

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"Morning's light"