Grand Style – Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas

Artist: Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas (Lithuanian-American, 1907–1997)
Date: 1968
Medium: Oil on Canvas Dimensions: 19.5 x 25.5 inches (Including Frame)

This 1968 portrait is a rare and intimate painting by Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas, an artist whose legacy is primarily defined by his monumental contributions to architecture, stained glass, and graphic arts. While he was a master of many mediums, his oils from the late 1960s represent a deeply personal facet of his “American period.” In this work, Jonynas applies a refined, linear-modernist style to the human form, likely depicting a fellow intellectual or friend from the post-war Lithuanian exile community in New York. The portrait is characterized by a strong sense of structural volume—a carryover from his expertise in woodcarving and bas-relief—paired with an expressive, soulful use of color that avoids mere decoration in favor of psychological depth.

By 1968, Jonynas was a celebrated figure in the United States, having recently designed the Vatican Pavilion’s monumental carvings for the New York World’s Fair. This portrait, framed in its original modern gilded wood, serves as a bridge between his public “grand style” and his private studio practice. The artist once noted that his work was a “perpetual fight” to transform his inner world into plastic forms; this painting captures that tension through the subject’s thoughtful expression and the deliberate, rhythmic brushwork that defines the composition. It stands as a significant artifact of the Baltic diaspora’s cultural life in mid-century America, reflecting the dignity and resilience of a generation of artists who re-established their heritage on a new continent.