Stumbling Stones, a series of stories by LRT RADIO, pays tribute to some of the most accomplished Litvaks born in Lithuania.
The expressionist painter Lasar Segall is known as the ‘Brazilian modernist from Vilnius’. His work is dominated by portraits of Brazilian people and landscapes of jungle or favelas. Navio de emigrantes (Ship of Emigrants) was one of his major paintings.
The painter was born in 1889 in Vilnius, into a family of a Torah scribe. He had seven brothers and sisters. Segall went to Mark Antokolsky Art School in Vilnius, where he started his artist career.
The young painter dreamt of living and working in Paris, but ended up in Germany, which was also a major European art centre. At the age of 15, Segall started his studies in Berlin, later moving to Dresden.
Despite frequent travel, the artist maintained a close relationship with his family. Many of Segall‘s handwritten letters to his parents and grandparents in Vilnius have been preserved.
In the wake of the First World War, the painter decided to migrate again, this time to Brazil, as economic hardship made life in Germany too hard.
The Brazilian artist Mário Raul de Morais Andrade said back then that Segall’s arrival in Latin America was a victory for modern art in Brazil.
The artist died in São Paulo in 1957. Ten years later, Lasar Segall Museum was opened in his former residence and art studio.
In 2010, Segall’s works were brought to Lithuania and temporarily exhibited in Vilnius. The exhibition showcased lithography from the artist’s book Memories About Vilnius.
Despite international acclaim, the Lithuanian-Brazilian modernist painter has been almost forgotten in his native land, according to Ieva Šadževičienė, the head of the Centre of Tolerance at Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History.
Read more:
Stumbling stones. Litvak novelist campaigning for Lithuanians who saved Jews
Stumbling stones. Danielius Dolskis, Lithuania's first king of Schlager music
Stumbling stones. Ilgovskis brothers, the developer tycoons of interwar Kaunas
Stumbling stones. Clara Rockmore, the Vilnius-born pioneer of electronic music
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