LITUANUS
LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
 
Volume 22, No.2 - Summer 1976
Editors of this issue: Bronius Vaškelis
Copyright © 1976 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.
Lituanus

PAINTING OF KAZIMIERAS ŽOROMSKIS

RENE SHAPSHAK
Fellow, Royal Society of Arts, London

There is ample evidence that art currently is at a critical stage both in the United States and elsewhere. Some believe that the arts are in decline generally, while others point out that more art is being produced than ever before. Whatever the reasons, something does seem to be wrong in the arts, even to the point of there being a popular "antiart" movement among younger artists. Gallery owners must bear much responsibility in this, for they are intermediaries between artist and collector. One must ask whether art should serve those who make it or those who acquire it.

Kazimeras Žoromskis has found his own answer.1 He is an artist who works and creates for aesthetic reasons, whether or not his inspiration and expressive abilities appeal to collectors. His art unites abstract linear and spatial patterns with the decorative tradition of Lithuanian folk art. It shows stylistic and intellectual consistency, and it is highly original.

Žoromskis' canvases express neither sociological, economic, nor political preconceptions. Instead they take the viewer on a voyage of intellectual and cultural discovery into surprising new dimensions of line and color. Žoromskis combines systems of vertical lines, of color, and of tonal value to create monumental and memorable effects. His art is almost scientifically precise. It seems to transform objects into architectural form. Thus, it imposes abstract order on experience, and at the same time evokes a variety of subconscious reactions. His luminous, analytical paintings may be experienced in many ways and on many levels.

 

1 Kazimieras Žoromskis was born in Lithuania in 1918. He studied art at the Art Academy of Vilnius (B.A., 1942), Vienna Art Academy (M.F.A., 1945) and Royal Art Academy of Rome (1946). He taught oil painting, life drawing, history of modern art, etc., at the Universidad Javeriana, Bogota (1949-51), at the Catan Rose Institute of Art, Jamaica, New York (1956-68) and at present he teaches perspective and oil painting at the Newark School of Pine and Industrial Art.
Mr. Žoromskis' work has been exhibited in various cities (Madrid, Bogota, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Paris, Washington, D.C., and New York). His most recent exhibits were at the Phoenix Gallery (New York) and one-man shows at Seton Hall and Yale Universities.

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Kazimieras Žoromskis, Plasma of Space, 1975

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Kazimieras Žoromskis, Encounter in Space, 1975

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Kazimieras Žoromskis, In the Kingdom of Jūratė, 1972