Vanda name

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Vanda Kanytė-Balukas was born in Šiauliai, Lithuania, in 1923 into a family of a railroadman. She attended primary school in Šiauliai, but moved and attended high school first in Veiveriai and then in Kaunas, where she graduated. Vanda was exposed to art at an early age in her own family, where both her father and especially her sister had artistic talents and were engaged in artful pursuits. However, when it was time for her to choose the curriculum for her own higher education, being full of the sense of national duty, she chose to enter the department of Lithuanian philology. It did not take long for Vanda to realize that she had made a mistake and after one year she switched to the study of painting at the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts. When the German occupational authorities closed all the acadamies of higher learning in Vilnius in March of 1943, Vanda attended a year of clandestine, after hours painting classes held at the Vilnius Museum of Fine Art by Adolfas Valeška, the museum's director. In 1944, Vanda moved to Vienna where she joined and toured with the Lithuanian Folk Ensemble Čiurlionis.

After World War II, when the Ecole des Arts et Metiers (School of Applied Arts) was organized by Vytautas K. Jonynas in Freiburg, Germany, Vanda continued her study of painting there and, after 2 years, graduated with a diploma. In Freiburg she also met and married Dr. Gediminas Balukas in 1947.

In 1949, the Balukas family immigrated to the United States, staying in New York for one year and then settling in Chicago. Vanda found the art scene in the U.S. very exciting and very different from the one she was familiar with in Europe. She sought additional training in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago, graduating with an Associate degree in 1969.

Vanda's painting was all figurative until 1971, when she started her series of abstract paintings on linen, which she dedicated to Lithuanian weavers. These abstract paintings, which are numbered and have no other titles, have become her preferred and unique style of artistic self-expression.

Beside her own painting, Vanda contributed to the Lithuanian artistic community in Chicago by working as the director of the Lithuanian Art Gallery Čiurlionis from 1971 to 1973 and as the chair of the Lithuanian Women Artists Association from 1971 to 1977, an organization of which she was one of the founding members.

After many years in Chicago, Vanda Balukas relocated to Beverly Shores, Michigan, in 1987, and to Tucson, Arizona, in 1997.

Vanda's paintings were exhibited in Chicago, New York, New Haven, Michigan City, Berkeley College at Yale University, and other locations.

References: (a) Vanda Balukas and (b) Algimantas Kezys, Lithuanian Artists in North America, Galerija, Stickney, Illinois, 1994.

SELECTED WORKS

All images are provided by the courtesy of Vanda Balukas. Any use of these images, other than personal, must be with her permission. Vanda Balukas can be reached by mail at P.O. Box 86861, Tucson, AZ 85754, or by phone at 520-882-3832.

earlier   24 paintings done before 1971.
 
later   24 paintings done after 1971.

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