Interviews with Twentieth-Century Ceramicists: Aldona Ličkutė, Egidijus Ignas Talmantas, and Kristina Karkaitė-Mazūrienė

Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis

Abstract

This publication of sources contains three interviews with ceramic artists who were active in the twentieth century: Aldona Ličkutė, Egidijus Ignas Talmantas, and Kristina Karkaitė-Mazūrienė.

Aldona Ličkutė’s interview covers the period of her studies, the 1950s, her relation with the teachers and her own teaching practice in the State Art Institute, and the lack of materials and technical facilities in ceramics in the Soviet period.

Egidijus Ignas Talmantas speaks about his technological experiments, the manufacturing of terra sigilatta, and his attempts to promote this invention internationally. He also describes his cooperation with archaeologists in exploring historical ceramics, and his work in the Vilnius M. K. Čiurlionis Art Boarding School.

Kristina Karkaitė-Mazūrienė’s interview addresses the artist’s relation to already well-established creators, the exhibition possibilities of those times, and the efforts to seek creative freedom. All the three interviewees speak about the artists’ possibilities to create in the Soviet period, and it is obvious that ceramic artists chose different tactics ranging from adapting to the system, refusal to create and immersing in technological experiments, to the attempts to bypass the local power field and to find higher-placed reviewers.

The interviewees, remarkable personalities, discuss the aspects important for creating ceramic works, their study years, their relations with colleagues, and their own work. The interviews touch upon the themes that could not be put out for public discussion in the Soviet era. Hopefully, these conversations will be interesting for further researchers of the Soviet period.