Adomas Vingis was a painter and printmaker who, after arriving in Australia as one of so many post-war refugees, lived most of the rest of his life in Brunswick, Melbourne.
Adomas was born in Naumiestis in Lithuania on 14th August, 1917.
Adomas Vingis
14th August, 1917 – 26th September, 1980
Feeling Art, not just creating
Abstracted shape and colour forming iconic landscapes of modern art
"Light the path"
“Apšviesti kelia”
“Apšviesti kelia”
Although he was a naturally gifted artist from an early age, he was largely self-taught and never formally studied art. When war broke out, he was already married and the father of one child, Laima, born in 1942. The political and social landscape of Lithuania and Europe was in chaos.
Invasion followed invasion, and together with hundreds of thousands of his countrymen, he decided to leave with his family. After time spent as a displaced person in Germany, where his second child, Kristina, was born in 1948, he studied Architecture in Stuttgart for two years. Finally, the family were accepted as refugees by the Australian government. They arrived in Melbourne on 26th June, 1951, on the SS Skaubryn, and were transferred to the Bonegilla Migrant Camp.
After the family moved back to Melbourne, he became involved in Lithuanian community affairs, playing a large role in establishing a Lithuanian House: first in Thornbury then in North Melbourne which still thrives to this day. Several of his canvases were donated to decorate and enliven the new premises, some of which can still be found there.
Settling into a new country and a new society, with a new language, was challenging, so it was only after twelve or so years that he was able to find the time and the space to begin to paint.
Painting
From the start, he was attracted to abstraction, its enigmatic forms and compositions. As he became bolder, he began to experiment with different materials, primarily automotive lacquers. These provided vivid colours, often with a metallic sheen, which could be poured into loose, fluid shapes that he could manipulate, sometimes using a compressed-air spray gun to shade and colour the surface. Most of these earlier works are on board or masonite and have survived well. Towards the end of his life he began working with acrylic paints, and started to produce larger canvases which, unfortunately, have not fared as well.
Printmaking
Printmaking was a special love. He very much admired the prints of contemporary artists in Australia, and especially liked modern printmakers working in Japan. He became a member of the Print Council of Australia and the Contemporary Art Society of Australia. During this time, he was also actively involved in arranging the acquisition of contemporary Australian and Japanese prints to be presented to the Vilnius Art Gallery and the Vilnius University Gallery. He deeply felt that it was important for people in the then Soviet Union to have access to uncensored art from the West.
In printmaking, experimentation was his primary focus. Instead of producing limited editions by traditional methods, using metal plates or lithography, he chose to explore the flexibility of monoprints where each new print was hand coloured and differed slightly from the last. The ‘plate’ was often in low-relief, on flexible board, where the surface was layered up, instead of incised.
By the early seventies, he had formed a lasting relationship with the Leveson Gallery, who represented him in considerable depth. When he died, he was in the process of putting together his largest exhibition of paintings and prints with them. The exhibition proceeded at the request of his family.
Notes:
A one-man show of prints and drawings was held at the Toorak Gallery in 1964. He was an exhibiting member with the Contemporary Art Society from 1967 on, participating at the CAS 31st Annual show in Sydney and the Art Festival at the University of Perth in 1967. In that year, he was awarded an ‘Honourable Mention’ for the Corio Prize at the Geelong Art Gallery. He is represented in collections in Lithuania, in Vilnius and Plunge, and in private collections in Australia, England and the USA. He died on 26th September, 1980.
Website:for full details on Adomas Vingis, visit his legacy website here:
Feeling the Australian colour with European delight