Composition

In the summer of 1944, as Soviet forces were advancing, friends of the Šiauliai lawyer and prominent public figure Ignas Urbaitis hastily prepared to flee to Klaipėda, urging him to join them. But there was only one place left on the cart. Urbaitis chose to stay behind with his wife and young children, sending only his oldest daughter Elena Urbaitis (1922–2006) on the journey. The family hoped to be reunited soon, but fate decided otherwise. Ignas Urbaitis was deported and died in a Siberian gulag, while his daughter escaped, built a life in New York, and became an inspiration to others. A contemporary of Aleksandra Kasuba and Marija Gimbutas, she belonged to a generation of women who embodied a new kind of emancipated female self-awareness, pursuing their professional paths with determination and independence. Their example helped to inspire and pave the way, at least in part, for Lithuania’s next generation of female artists and scholars, who came of age during the country’s renewed independence.

The collection includes one of her early works, a painting called Composition. With its sunlit mood, bold colour contrasts and collage-like rendering, it reflects the style of works she created during her 1956 travels in southern Europe, such as Ville Franche. Nice (Aušra Museum, Šiauliai, D-T 7860) and Venice (Lithuanian National Museum of Art, T 13361).

Text author Laura Petrauskaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album OBJECTS ON SHOW (2017). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, ARTISTS ON THE MOVE (2025). Compiler and text author Laura Petrauskaitė
Expositions: "Free and Unfree. Lithuanian Art between 1945 and 1990", 9 September 2021 – 30 April 2022, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curators Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė.

In the summer of 1944, as Soviet forces were advancing, friends of the Šiauliai lawyer and prominent public figure Ignas Urbaitis hastily prepared to flee to Klaipėda, urging him to join them. But there was only one place left on the cart. Urbaitis chose to stay behind with his wife and young children, sending only his oldest daughter Elena Urbaitis (1922–2006) on the journey. The family hoped to be reunited soon, but fate decided otherwise. Ignas Urbaitis was deported and died in a Siberian gulag, while his daughter escaped, built a life in New York, and became an inspiration to others. A contemporary of Aleksandra Kasuba and Marija Gimbutas, she belonged to a generation of women who embodied a new kind of emancipated female self-awareness, pursuing their professional paths with determination and independence. Their example helped to inspire and pave the way, at least in part, for Lithuania’s next generation of female artists and scholars, who came of age during the country’s renewed independence.

The collection includes one of her early works, a painting called Composition. With its sunlit mood, bold colour contrasts and collage-like rendering, it reflects the style of works she created during her 1956 travels in southern Europe, such as Ville Franche. Nice (Aušra Museum, Šiauliai, D-T 7860) and Venice (Lithuanian National Museum of Art, T 13361).

Text author Laura Petrauskaitė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album OBJECTS ON SHOW (2017). Compiler and author Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, ARTISTS ON THE MOVE (2025). Compiler and text author Laura Petrauskaitė
Expositions: "Free and Unfree. Lithuanian Art between 1945 and 1990", 9 September 2021 – 30 April 2022, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curators Dovilė Barcytė and Ieva Burbaitė.