Vincas Grybas: gyvenimo ir kūrybos drama

LTVincas Grybas - vienas žymiausių XX a. pirmos pusės mūsų dailininkų, nepralenktas paminklinių skulptūrų kūrėjas, vienintelis skulptorius, sugebėjęs projektuoti paminklą ne vien kaip dailininkas, bet ir kaip architektas, puikiai išmanęs skulptūros medžiagos savybes bei jos įgyvendinimo niuansus. Tačiau jo likimas buvo nepaprastai permainingas, kupinas visokiausių netikėtumų, prieštaravimų ir dvasinių svyravimų vertinant gyvenimo situaciją, kuri nebuvo palanki nei jam, nei jo menui. Liko daug neįgyvendintų projektų, todėl Grybo gyvenimą būtų galima pavadinti dramatišku ir netgi tragišku, jeigu ne per stebuklą išlikę jo sukurti paminklai Simonui Daukantui, Žemaičiui, Vincui Kudirkai, Vytautui (Jurbarke) [Iš Pratarmės].

ENThe phenomenon of Vincas Grybas (1890-1941) is still intriguing the admirers of Lithuanian history and those who are concerned about the assessment of culture in the past. Contradictory appraisals of the sculptor’s oeuvre exist up to now. Sometimes an attempt is made to adopt an absolutist attitude to his ideological position at a time of political turning points in Lithuania. Practically, however, he was far from politics, except his young days. In this connection it should be also mentioned that the light of his patriotic works is still shining due to which a conditional independence and aesthetic value have survived. The sculptor’s oeuvre attracts the investigators’ attention for one more reason, namely he was one of the first to bring to Lithuania the best 20th-century traditions of the neoclassical school of sculpture. He had adopted them directly from his teacher Antuan Bourdelle and from the treasures of plastic art amassed in Paris museums and streets. Grybas was preoccupied with sculpture and architecture at the same time. His works exemplify the harmony of architecture and art forms in monumental sculpture as well as the perfect knowledge of the peculiarities of artistic medium. In this respect he set the tone for the further development of Lithuanian sculpture. After his return from Paris, Grybas created even six, the most representational monuments of independent Lithuania within the period of ten intensive years: to Simonas Daukantas in Papilė, two - Vytautas, Great Duke of Lithuania, in Kaunas and Jurbarkas, Žemaitis in Raseiniai, Vincas Kudirka in Kudirka Naumiestis, Petras Vileišis in Pasvalys, and a monumental altar in the church of Salantai. The great majority of his other projects, even as many as 11, were not realized due to the lack of funds.The talented sculptor was accompanied throughout his entire life by hard work, the struggle for existence and other various failures in life: in the years of independent Lithuania he was reproached for his left - wing views in his youth (although his works were highly national and artistic), and in Soviet times his monuments were destroyed due to their patriotic character. It was only his creative work and erected monuments recognized by professionals, intellectuals, state figures and simple people that gave him joy. The monogram features the wholeness of Grybas' work, unfolds the integrity of his work and aspirations of life, the associations between artistic ideas and personal convictions, presents a new attitude to the change in his social principles. It also throws light on the peculiarities of Grybas’ artistic maturation: furnishes more thorough information on his first studies in Warsaw and the milieu where the young artist was maturing, as well as on the skills in decorative sculpture mastered in Kaunas School of Art. However the greatest attention was devoted to Grybas’ studies in Paris. This information not only complements the sculptor’s biography but also helps one to understand the impact of French art on the 20th-century Lithuanian art and culture. It is noteworthy that this book witnesses the first attempts to characterize Grybas’ works of prime importance and his unrealized projects, among them of religious subjects - those executed in churches and unsightly forgotten. The monogram contains adjusted facts from his life and work purified from ideological coatings and distortions connected with them. One of the major goals was to disclose an artistic value and sense of Grybas’ work, its place in the Lithuanian sculpture of the first half of the 20th-century.It was a comparison of the artist’s work with a wider context of the development of sculpture that made possible to show the originality and peculiarity of his works, i. e. with the neoclassical tendency of the 20th-century French sculpture and the national orientation of artistic thinking in other countries, which gained political independence after World War I (Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Czechia, Latvija). Alike Grybas’ monuments, they stood out for their ensemble character - the link of sculpture with architecture and environment composed of the most developed part of architecture, most often nature, which was imbued with the sense of the native land’s symbol. The sculptor was endowed with a wonderful sense of proportions and managed to locate his monuments at their proper space. Grybas’ works pulsating with a national spirit corresponded to the stylistic and ideological orientation of Lithuanian sculpture of the period - a necessity to raise the importance of Lithuanian folk art traditions. A tragic death of the sculptor (he fell victim to genocide) and a dramatic fate of his monuments and other works after his death, irrespective of their essence and aesthetic value, today pose problems of a more serious character, notably the appraisal of the nation’s history and the perception of the artist’s mission, because the created works always have a greater enduring value than contradictory ideological views. The monogram has been written on the basis of various collected and adjusted facts from certain sources, above all letters and documents. We hope that this material can be just as well useful to other investigators who generalize the development of Lithuanian art of the first half of the 20th-century, particularly its connections with French art.