Lietuvių dailininkų veikla Vokietijoje 1946–1950 metais: reprezentacija ar išsigelbėjimas per kultūrą
The work of exiled Lithuanian artists in Germany in 1946-1950: representation or salvation through culture

Summary/Abstract: In this article, the author analyses the life of Lithuanian artists who, having fled their country, tried to survive and later establish themselves in the Western World during the difficult period at the end of World War II. The article tries to answer what socio-political factors ordained Lithuanian artists’ activity under extremely difficult circumstances when living in Germany’s displaced persons (DP) camps and what were the consequences of this activity. The article focuses on art exhibitions and their aims. New information found in Lithuanian, German and American archives suggests that art exhibitions were viewed as more than just a phenomenon of the world of art. They were understood as a political aim, an attempt to change the attitude of the Allied government in Germany to DPs from Eastern Europe, a means to show the political and cultural difference from the Soviet Union. Another, a more negative side of the highly engaged Lithuanian political art in Germany comes to light in this article: after emigration to other countries, mainly USA, Lithuanian artists’ mindset remained deeply conservative and their integration into the world of Western art was negligible or even impossible.

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