Current Events
"His Works are a Feast, a Celebration"
Lithuanian art critic, Algis Uždavinys, wrote in one of his articles that contemporary art too often reflects the desperation and the cynicism of the age, which we are living in. Art lost its spiritual roots and became a circus where so called artists play their games usually on the edge of vulgarity. But there are still a lot of artists, who, like the old masters, tell, and retell the souls story, her loves and sorrows, desires and quest. One of them is the Lithuanian contemporary artist, Egidijus Rudinskas, a Professor of the Kaunas Art Institute, whose deeply moving, spiritual art can be appreciated in the Walsh Library Gallery of the Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, at the group exhibition called A Response to Emotionalism: Recent Works by Eastern European Artists.
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More than twenty etchings and an artists book The Last Hour executed by Mr. Rudinskas will be on view in the gallery for almost two months. His recent work, called The Garden of Memories awarded in July 2000 the 1st Prize at the Biennale Internazionale di Grafica at Francavilla al Mare, Italy, will also be included into the show.
His art is a great example of the cultivation and admiration of the traditional values of Fine Arts like proportion, balance and harmony. It is art full of expression, feelings and emotions. His art shows life like something miraculous and epiphanic. It talks straight to the heart of the viewer who can find in it his own expression of life, good and bad times, happiness, loves and sorrows. His etchings have a special value of prophecy, an ability to change viewers into better, more sensitive human beings.
Rudinskas art is one of a kind Lithuanian art that can be appreciated by other nations because of its difference and originality. It is art based on an artists experience, education, devotion, and what is the most important, talent.
Looking at his works is a feast, a celebration. We can find there everything we have lost. We can find our childhood, our youth, our innocence, and our dreams, which never came true. With the miraculous world of his etchings, full of patience, mercy, and compassion, Rudinskas is one of the best, most original contemporary Lithuanian graphic artists.
Egidijus Rudinskas is an amazing draftsman whose intricate narrative etchings evoke a dark gothic realm. Beautifully rendered nude male and female corpses lie buried beneath a cathedral or are combined with small houses, horses, leaves, eggs in birds nests, and other objects in symbolic compositions that make one think of Durer, albeit with a more contemporary sensibility influenced by Freud and Surrealism. Rudinskas is a literary artist in the best sense of that term wrote an American art critic, Lawrence Downes, in the January/February 2000 issue of the Gallery&Studio.
Walsh Library Gallery
Seton Hall University
400 South Orange Ave.
South Orange, NJ 07079
Show runs September 1 till October 27, 2000.
Walsh Library Gallery is open Monday - Friday 10:30 - 4:30 pm
For more information call Ms. JoAnn Cotz, Director of the Walsh Gallery,
tel. 973-275-2033, or a curator of the show, Mr. Jan K. Kapera, tel.
973-779-3382
Jan K. Kapera
Second Step to NATO Prepared
A new second project of the program for NATO membership preparation has been submitted to the Lithuanian government for approval. The Governmental NATO Integration Coordination Commission, which was in conference in Vilnius on Sept. 18th, adopted the project for 2000-2001. The Government will evaluate the project at a sitting later this month.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry's report a plan for practical measures. The program is divided into different chapters, which deal with political and economic, defense and military, resources, protection of secret information, and legal questions. Informing the Lithuanian public about NATO integration forms a separate part in the program. Its goal is to objectively inform the public about Lithuania's aspirations as well as to disseminate information about the relations among Alliance, NATO, and Lithuania.
Lithuania, basing itself on the Membership Action Plan (MAP) adopted in the Washington summit meeting of NATO states and governments last year, has already implemented the first NATO membership preparation program for 1999-2000.
The evaluation of the implementation of the 1999-2000 program, prepared by the Alliance, reads that Lithuania has made general progress in each part of the Membership Action Plan. NATO remarks and the experience acquired while implementing the 1999-2000 program were taken into consideration when drawing up the 2000-2001 program.
The Coordination Commission headed by the foreign and defense ministers was set up last April. It embraces vice-ministers of quite a few Lithuanian ministries, heads of the Lithuanian mission to NATO, and Lithuanian security department.
Lithuanians Recognized Righteous Among the Nations
Thirteen Lithuanian families, who put their lives at risk to save Jews during the Nazi rule, were awarded medals and diplomas of Righteous Among the Nations on behalf of Jerusalem in Vilnius on Sept. 21st.
Many of the rescuers are deceased, so Israeli Ambassador to the Baltic states, Ronit Ben Dor, handed the medals and diplomas of the Yad Vashem Institute to their descendants.
"The honoring of the righteous has become a tradition, which is particularly bright on the eve of the Day of Lithuanian Jewish Genocide, September 23," chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish community, Simonas Alperavičius, said at the ceremony.
"During the Nazi rule, there were villains who killed innocent people just because they were Jews, and there were large numbers of righteous people who risked their lives and the lives of their families to rescue the condemned," said Alperavičius, "These noble people can be safely called heroes."
The Israeli ambassador gave a short description of the heroic deeds of every person decorated with the awards of the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.
Lithuanian Parliamentary Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis received the award on behalf of his aunt, Jadvyga Jablonskienė, who rescued a Jewish girl. Landsbergis` mother has also received a medal of the Righteous Among the Nations. The medal received by Landsbergis is the 445th award received by Lithuanian citizens for saving Jews. The Lithuanian president has awarded another 360 Lithuanian rescuers.
News from Lithuania The Baltic News Service
UN Assesses Situation of Women in Lithuania
The United Nations (UN) has advised Lithuania to improve the situation of working women and take measures to prevent crimes against women, domestic violence, prostitution and trade in women.
These Sept. 11th recommendations came in response to Lithuania's report on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women presented to the UN in June.
The UN was also provided with an alternative report prepared by Lithuanian women's non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which gave a critical assessment of the activities of the country's government with regard to the increasing scale of prostitution and trade in women. The report noted the insufficient number of women elected to the parliament and city councils, problems regarding sponsoring and financing NGOs, as well as discrimination against women on the labor market.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has suggested that the Lithuanian government should enter into closer cooperation with NGOs, provide them with financial assistance, encourage political activity of women, and focus more on the problems of women in rural areas and elderly women in general.
Equal Gender Opportunities Ombudsperson Aušrinė Burneikienė told BNS that the UN committee called attention to the lack of educational programs and media campaigns examining the negative conception of stereotype female and male roles in education, labor, political and administration sectors.
Lithuania's Putin Vodka not a Tribute to Russian Leader
The Lithuanian alcoholic beverage producer Alita has put on the market its latest product, Putin Vodka, but it denies any allusions to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There are three crowns resembling the symbol of Russian czar rule portrayed above the Putin Vodka caption on the blue, white and red label of the bottle -- the colors of the flag of the Russian Federation. Yet, Alitas Finance and Administration Director Vilmantas Pečiura told BNS that Putin Vodka has nothing to do with the Russian president.
"There is a plant in Lithuania, and we decided to give its name to our new vodka," said Pečiura referring to patinas [Lithuanian for "snowball tree"], which has been glorified in Lithuanian folklore.
Pečiura said that the three crowns on the label of the Putin Vodka were related to Alitas trademark, the blue background behind the name of the product means that the vodka should be consumed cold, adding that the red background behind "vodka" stands for the red berries of the snowball tree.
Asked to comment on the use of the English word "vodka" rather than its Lithuanian equivalent, Pečiura said that "everything is in line with the European Union (EU) standards."
"Lithuania is aspiring for membership in the European Union, and the European Union uses "vodka", he said.
The 40-volume Putin Vodka costs $7 a bottle.
Lithuania Still "Somewhere Over There"
The Cable News Network (CNN), considering itself the "leader of the world's news", still regards Lithuania as a country "somewhere over there".
On Sept. 21st, while announcing the results of the Olympic basketball game between the U.S. and Lithuania, the Kuwaiti flag was shown next to the name of Lithuania. The flag of this Persian Gulf region country does not resemble the Lithuanian flag at all. Lithuanian basketball players lost to the U.S. "dream team" with a score of 76:85. Specialists considered such a small difference to be a sensation.
Lithuania's Castles at Your Fingertips
A guidebook, The
Castles of Vilnius, relating the history, facts and legends of the Vilnius
Upper, Lower, and Kreivoji Castles is now available. This 24-page book
describes the museums and points of interest within the territory of the
Castles, including the Arch-Cathedral, National Museum of Lithuania, Applied
Art Museum, the Upper Castle Museum and the Royal Palace archeological
research site.
The small format, glossy print book is a collaborative result of Lithuanian-Americans now living in Lithuania and local scholars. It is authored by Kazys Almenas, edited by Edmundas Kulikauskas, and designed by Ramūnas Krupauskas. The publisher, Draugija Pilis (Castle Society), 2000, "promotes research, restoration and publicity of the Castles of Vilnius and other castles in Lithuania".
The Castles of Vilnius may be obtained in the U.S. from DRAUGAS, 4545 W. 63 St., Chicago, IL 60629; tel. 773-585-9500. u
Ramunė Kubilius
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