Samuel Bak Museum presents the exhibition “Generations and Destinies”

Five artists, four generations and more than a century of Lithuanian history which told ruthlessly on the fate of the Savickas family.

 

The family history has it all: the expectant life of the Lithuanian diplomat and writer Jurgis Savickis and his family in pre-war Europe, including his fortuneless marriage to his wife Ida Trakiner-Savickienė, born into St Petersburg Litvak family, and finally the long years of World War II that separated the family for good. The ill-fated love of their elder son Algirdas for the Jewish girl Julika, his voluntary retreat to the Kaunas Ghetto together with his love and her little daughter Regina, where Algirdas was shot to death by a guard, and the disappearance and death in uncertain circumstances of Ida Savickienė at the moment when German army was already retreating from Lithuania will always remain part of the family history. As a result, Algirdas Savickis ‘remained’ a mere brother of Augustinas (by then already) Savickas (1919-2012) and had little chance to make his own contribution to the Lithuanian art.

 

The tragic fate of his mother and brother left an indelible mark on Algirdas creative life and was reflected in many of his sad large-scale paintings. Augustinas’ characters are filled with melancholy, tragedy and loneliness. Often it is an archetypical figure of his mother, reminding the folk art motive of pensive Christ.