Petras Kiaulėnas

(1909 - 1955)

Biography

Petras Kiaulėnas was born on January 10, 1909 in Naniškiai, Rokiškis District. He was a painter and an architect. In 1934 he graduated from Kaunas School of Art and later on studied at the Royal Academy in Rome. In Paris he studied architecture at the State Higher School of Decorative Art and urbanism in Paris Urban Institute. He travelled to Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy and Belgium. In 1946 he settled in the U.S and since 1952 lived in New York. Petras Kiaulėnas participated in exhibitions in Paris (1943, 1944, 1946, 1957), Chicago (1985), Vilnius (1993). He died on August 15, 1955 in New York.

Style

Petras Kiaulėnas painted landscapes ("Summer in the Park” in 1953, "Twilight" in 1954), still lifes ("Pomegranates" in 1951, “Flower, lemons and figure” in 1955), portraits (“Portrait of Lady B.” in 1954, a portrait of the painter A. Varnas in 1955), figurative compositions (“Resting dancers” in 1947), with his wife, architect V. Kiaulėniene developed projects of residential houses, villas, sacral building in Chicago, California, New York. His creative work is characterized by bright palette, simplified forms and influence of impressionism. The most important exhibitions: in Paris (1943, 1944, 1946, 1957), Chicago (1985), Vilnius (1993). Since 1973 in Farmingville (New York, USA) there is a museum of artworks by Petras Kiaulėnas. In 1993 a large collection of works by Petras Kiaulenas was exhibited in Lithuanian Art Museum.