The Expression of National Peculiarity in Thaw-Period Lithuanian Art: Folklore Modernism in the Graphic Arts

The paper deals with the theme of national peculiarity of artistic expression during the Thaw period. Research subject is critical reflection of graphic arts, one of the branches of soviet arts that experienced the earliest modernization. The concept of national peculiarity of arts employed at the time as a methodological framework for art criticism is evaluated. The paper considers the shifts of critical reception of folklore modernism in Lithuanian graphic arts in the central soviet cultural press as well as in Lithuanian art criticism, specifying, in particular, the take on the stylization of folk art, primitivism, modernism. By establishing the means of expression, which were legitimized through their link with folk art tradition, the researcher reveals the influence of folklore modernism on the modernisation of the Lithuanian graphic arts.