Adomas Varnas

Adomas Varnas (January 1, 1879, in Joniškis, Lithuania – July 19, 1979, in Chicago, United States) was a prominent Lithuanian painter, photographer, collector, philanthropist, and educator.

In 1913 Varnas returned to his native Lithuania, making his home in its capital Vilnius, where he worked not only as an artist but also as a civic and cultural leader.

He won many prizes by designing playing cards and postage stamps,[4] and he went to Prague to supervise the first printing of Lithuanian money.

[5] He spent five years collecting objects of Lithuanian folklore and making photographs of wooden crosses which were found alongside the roads.

The third period (1918–1940), which coincides with independent Lithuania, shows the artist's intensified colorific aspirations in his portraits and his favorite subject: the landscape.

In this period, he painted the monumental historical composition The Coronation of King Mindaugas, in which the artist demonstrated a four-year painstaking work of art.

It is amazing, that during Varnas' long artistic life, spanning over 60 years, he never was influenced by developing new trends in art, such as expressionism, surrealism, or even abstract.