LITUANUS LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   Volume 24, No.3 - Fall 1978 Editor of this issue: Kęstutis Girnius ISSN 0024-5089 Copyright © 1978 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.

THE ART OF PAULIUS JURKUS

Paulius Jurkus was born in Žemaičių Kalvarija (now, Varduva) on July 27th, 1916. He studied literature and humanities at the universities of Kaunas and Vilnius, graduating at the University of Vilnius in 1943. In 1944, as so many thousands of his countrymen, he fled to Germany where he was active as a writer, editor and publisher of cultural journals. In 1950, Jurkus emigrated to the United States. Since 1951, he has been working on the editorial staff of Darbininkas, ("The Worker") a Lithuanian Catholic periodical (now weekly) published in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was also managing editor of the Lithuanian Catholic Youth magazine, Ateitis ("The Future") from 1951-1955.

Jurkus started publishing his poetry and short stories before W.W.II in various youth and literary journals in Lithuania. After W.W.II he continued this in Germany and in the U.S.A. His novel Smilgaičių akvarelė ("The Water Color View of Smilgaičiai") was awarded the annual novel prize of the Chicago Lithuanian daily Draugas ("Friend") in 1957. Its optimism, cheerful mood, very fluent style and language, with a dose of sentimental nostalgia, are typical of most of Jurkus' writings. Ant Vilnelės tilto ("On the Bridge of Vilnelė River"), 1968, is a collection of legends from the Vilnius area, an important source of his inspiration. In 1975, Jurkus published Juodvarniai ("The Ravens"), a long poem in verses, based on a Lithuanian folktale.

Jurkus took up painting and drawing after W. W.II, although even earlier he liked to 'write in images" (Cf. the title of his novel). Jurkus' paintings and drawings fall, basically, into two categories: as a book illustrator, he has illustrated more than 100 books; as a painter he expresses his nostalgia in, more or less, romantic present-day realism.

Jurkus has participated in several group exhibits in New York City and area, and had his individual exhibits in several cities in the U.S.A. 

In this issue, we present several paintings by Paulius Jurkus.

All photography work was done by L Tamošaitis.

The Džiugas Hill. Oil, 1972.

The Portrait of M.K. Čiurlionis. Oil on paper, 1965.

A Copse of Birches. Oil, 1975.

In Samogitia 1. Oil, 1977.

Winter in a Lithuanian Village. Oil, 1977.

Rūpintojėlis (The Sorrowful Christ) in Samogitia. Oil on paper, 1963.