VLADAS KARATAJUS

Vladas Karatajus was born on July 28, 1925 in Vilkaviškis. After finishing primary school in Lazdijai and gymnasium in Ukmergė, in 1942 the future artist entered the Ukmergė teachers’ seminary. After graduating in 1946, he entered the Vilnius Art Institute and a few years later entered the Figurative Composition and Portrait Studio led by Professor Vytautas Mackevičius. After graduating from the institute in 1952, the young artist was invited to teach there. In 1965, Vladas Karatajus was given the title of associate professor, later he became a professor, and from 1968 he became the head of Department of Painting.

Art critic Airida Grivačiauskaitė writes: “Karatajus is a colorist who believes in the limitless possibilities of color. A subtle sense of color, the ability to use its expressiveness and decorative possibilities in portraits, landscapes and still lifes are combined with a subtle sense of compositional coherence, picture structure. Portraiture, naturalness, coloristics and compositional harmony are the four main categories that describe the artist’s work.” <…>

Vladas Karatajus is a representative of the Lithuanian painting school with deep historical roots, developing the traditions of realistic portraiture. It is the genre of the portrait, which revealed the limitless possibilities of knowing reality, that uniquely marked the entire path of the artist’s work. The artist constantly solved the problems of psychological portraiture. He always relied on the principles of classical portraiture and inner intuition. The portraits reflect the individual feeling of each person, sincere communication with him, highlighting not only the similarity, but also the complex spiritual life, character diversity and individuality of each person, highlighting the characteristic features of the person being portrayed.