Gudaitis, Antanas Martyno

Born July 16(29). 1904, in Ŝiauliai. Soviet painter; People’s Artist of the Lithuanian SSR (1964).

Gudaitis studied at the Kaunas Art School (1926–29) and the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts in Paris (1929–33). He began teaching at the Art Institute of the Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius in 1940 and became a professor there in 1947. He has painted thematic canvases (Labor, 1929; The Peasant Uprising of 1863 in Lithuania, 1963, at the Art Museum of the Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius), portraits (the fisherman K. Au-gucis, 1958, at the Art Museum of the Lithuanian SSR; Rūta Is Resting, 1962. at the M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum in Kaunas), and numerous landscapes; he also does drawings. The sharp rhythms and intense color combinations that mark his painting express the dynamics of modern life and the artist’s own creative approach to the world. Gudaitis received the State Prize of the Lithuanian SSR in 1965. He has been awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor and medals.