Stasys Ušinskas

In 2019, 'Ušinskas' puppet film The Fat-Man's Dream and collection of puppet sketches were inscribed onto the Lithuanian National Memory of the World Register' by the UNESCO.

1972: Eglė the Queen of Serpents ('Eglė žalčių karalienė') now situated in the Kretinga City's Cultural Centre (Kretingos rajono kulturos centras).

1965: Kristijonas Donelaitis stained-glass piece now in the M.K. Čiurlionis Museum of Art.

1964: Students in Practical Training now in Kaunas University of Technology (KTU).

''In 1950, Ušinskas began scientific and technical experiments with stained-glass formed a low-temperature and was the first in Lithuania to produce mirror and block stained glass. Ušinskas, already known for his work in the interwar period, was forced by circumstance and a loss of commissions to begin experimenting at the Aleksotas glass factory, where he set up his own small workshop equipped with a small, liquid fuel-fired furnace. There, he created low-fire fine glass works: vases, plates, aquarium bowls, lamps, and small glass figurines.''

In 1950’s and 1960’s, Stasys Ušinskas created decorative glass vessels including vases and decorative plates.

1946: Žalgiris Battle stained-glass piece now in the M.K. Čiurlionis Museum of Art.

1945-1947: A series of stained-glass works for the Christ's Resurrection Church in Kaunas.

1940: St. Casimir and St. Joseph for the Šančiai Church.

The publication of Stasys Ušinskas letters to his wife Vitalija Blažytė who was exiled to Siberia‘s gulags between 1940 and 1957 reveal the life in a post-war Lithuania and the details of Stasys Ušinskas work specifics, professional life. In the letters, Ušinskas also mentions his students Vytautas Cipljauskas, Sofija Veiverytė and Kazys Varnelis whose early works evoke strong Ušinskas’ influence.

1939-1947: A series of stained-glass pieces Mindaugas and Vytautas for the Berčiūnai Church in Panevežys.

Since the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1939, Lithuanian artists were placed under a pressure of the Soviet Union’s political propaganda. As an avant-garde artist, Stasys Ušinskas had to balance his artworks between the soviet ideology forced by the instructions and the artistic principles.

In 1938, Ušinskas returned to Lithuania and finalized the creation of puppets for the first Lithuanian short film with sound effects The Fat-Man's Dream based on the puppetoon technique. The novel technology of Ušinskas' puppets allowed to flexibly move various body parts, express certain emotions and traits of the characters from the story.

‘Their maneuvering between official and private lives, between the public and the personal, brought new discoveries as well as new lows of conformism.’ One of the examples in Stasys Ušinskas work is A Midsummer Night's Dream (Vasaros Nakties Sapnas, 1938) in which appears his wife’s Vitalija Blažytė’s portrait like compositions. In her personal notes Vitalija Blažytė writes:

A year later (1937), Ušinskas received gold and silver medals at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne for scenography design of Balys Dvarionas ballet Matchmaking (1933) and the marionettes for the animation film The Fat-Man's Dream (Storulio sapnas).

In 1937, Ušinskas traveled to New York to organize the solo exhibition at the Roger Smith Gallery. During this year, Ušinskas received a patent for the sketches of marionettes and used it for the creation of puppets. He also created decorations and costumes for the August Strindberg's play The Bridal Crown (in the Broadway Theater) and Euridipes' The Trojan Women. He created two puppets and decorations for the Broadway Theatre play The Nightingale (based on the tale by Hans Christian Andersen), however the creative work was interrupted by World War II.

1937-1938: Subject based stained-glass works Lithuanian Girl and Builder for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kaunas.

The formative influence of the Parisian teachers could be observed in a number of Ušinskas’ drawings and paintings of ‘multi-figured and monumental compositions’ depicting ‘sportive bodies, balanced proportions, movements, complex perspectives and sculptural dimensions’ such as Spring (plafond for the Kaunas Aviation House) 1937; Music (plafond for the Broadway Theatre) 1938, Circus Rehearsal ('Cirko Repeticija') 1938-1945, Aviator's Dream (Lakūno Sapnas) 1939.

In 1935, Ušinskas created a number of marionettes for the first Lithuanian puppet play Silvester Fife (Silvestras Dūdelė) directed by Antanas Gustaitis and in 1938 for the first Lithuanian sound animation The Fat-Man's Dream (Storulio sapnas).According to Audronė Girdzijauskaitė:

In 1932, Ušinskas designed numerous performances in drama, opera and ballet theaters. In 1934, Ušinskas became a professor at Kaunas Art School and taught monumental painting, stained glass and scenography design. Between 1935 and 1940, Ušinskas manages a decorative painting studio at Kaunas Art School. Ušinskas took over the leadership of the studio and soon became an authority in set design, demanding that his students master constructive thinking and logic in design, and emphasizing the importance of new technologies, also instructing students in the proper exhibition of artistic works.

In 1931, Ušinskas returned to Lithuania and organized the first solo exhibitions in Kaunas and Šiauliai. His scenography works drew interest of Andrius Oleka-Žilinskas [lt], the director of the State Theater, who invited Ušinskas to work in the theater. S. Ušinskas also worked with Lithuanian writer Balys Sruoga and the famous Russian actor and director Mikhail Chekkov.

After the return from studies in Paris, Ušinskas created the first stained-glass pieces for the Church of Vytautas the Great in Kaunas. Žydrūnas Mirinavičius describes the formative influence of studies in Paris felt in Ušinskas artworks such as Saint (1931):

In 1929–1931, Ušinskas studied at the Académie Julian and later attended lectures by Henri-Marcel Magne [fr][1] at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts). In 1930, Aleksandra Ekster has encouraged Ušinskas to join the Académie Moderne where he attended Ekster’s lectures on scenography, Fernand Léger’s lectures on painting and Le Corbusier’s abstract composition. Stasys Ušinskas has later remembered his formative years in Paris in the following words :

During the work in Aleksotas glass factory, Stasys Ušinskas was often assisted by his sister Filomena Ušinskaitė and other students, one of them was his second wife Vitalija Blažytė (1926–1999) who will become an important collaborator in a variety of glass artworks and a muse for Stasys Ušinskas' stained-glass pieces and paintings.

Stasys Ušinskas was born in Pakruojis, a city situated in northern Lithuania, to a family of stonebreaker Juozas Ušinskas, his mother Sofija Ušinskaitė and his siblings Filomena, Romas, Alfonsas. Between 1908 (1909?) and 1914, the family lived in the United States. In 1914, Stasys returned to Lithuania and in 1925 graduated from the Šiauliai Gymnasium. Between 1925 and 1929 he studied painting in Kaunas Art School and frequented the art studio of Justinas Vienožinskis [lt]. Following the 1929 student strike, Justinas Vienožinskis and Juozas Mikėnas [lt] encouraged Ušinskas to continue his studies in Paris.

Stasys Ušinskas (20 July 1905 – 14 June 1974) was a Lithuanian artist of multiple creative fields: modern painting, stained glass, scenography, animation, puppetry and decorative glass artworks. He is widely regarded as the "father of Lithuanian stained glass art".