VIESULAS CENTENARY GRANT

2018 marked the centenary of the late graphic artist Romas Viesulas. A major retrospective was held at the National Gallery of Lithuania in Vilnius. The first ever comprehensive monograph was being published. A survey of his innovations in relief prints and monumental work on fabric was hosted in his home town of Philadelphia. And the Viesulas family estate is raising funds to create a grant. We call it a ‘diploma for displaced persons’, like the one he was awarded as a young man. Proceeds go to support artists in exile.

Romas Viesulas was born in 1918 in Lithuania, the same year that it became an independent country, though not for long. When it was invaded in the Second World War, he left his home as an exile from war, and never went back. The ‘Diploma for Displaced Persons’ that Viesulas was awarded in 1947 was created by the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, with a campus in Freiburg Germany. It was financed by the French on German soil after the war, specifically for refugees. With this degree, Viesulas emigrated to the US to develop his artistic vision, which centered on his experience of exile. His work is now in the permanent collections of the Met, MoMA, Philadelphia Museum of Art and many other major institutions. Ultimately, he went on to represent the US in the Venice Biennale in 1970.

SUPPORT THE CENTENARY GRANT

diploma for displaced persons

There are more displaced people and refugees now than at any other time in recorded history, and they are on the move in numbers not seen since Viesulas left his native Lithuania in World War II. Viesulas’ art reminds us of the human aspirations of independence and freedom of expression. With your contribution, Viesulas' legacy can inspire and enable other artists exiled by war, ideology, natural disaster or injustice.

Will you help us to create a diploma for displaced persons, a grant to help displaced artists reailze their vision? All donations will go towards the creation of a grant to help artists who have lost their country, their home or their voice. Click on the links below or on the GALLERY page to purchase the commemorative print, the catalog, and to make a donation. And thank you.

Featured

sale

Olympics - 1984, lithograph, 30x21.5”/ 76x55cm, signed by the artist

$550.00 $800.00

Retrospective monograph - Romas Viesulas: Grafika/ Graphic Art

$55.00

LEARN MORE

Fundraising is under way to create a Centenary Grant of at least $12,000, to be awarded to one or more artists whose practice is informed by their experience of displacement. The Grant will be administered by the family estate, and a board that will include established professionals from art and humanitarian institutions. The Grant will seek to recognise artists whose work acts as a summons to witness or a call to empathy. Applications are to be reviewed for artistic merit, the quality and promise of the applicant's work. Artists from any country and artistic discipline may qualify. The Estate will encourage applications from artists otherwise underrepresented in their fields. Preference will be given to artists who:

* work in printmaking or the graphic arts

* are committed to technical virtuosity in their chosen discipline

* have recently fled their home country or country of residence due to conflict or natural disaster

* have experience internal exile due to repression or injustice

Separately, work is under way to create a Scholarship or exchange program for young printmakers from Lithuania and the Baltic States. To get involved or to learn more about applying for the Centenary Grant, please sign up to the Estate Newsletter via the link below, or get in touch via the CONTACT page. Full details of the Centenary Grant will be released in early 2019. Details of the Scholarship will follow.