The exhibition, covering more than four decades of the artist’s work, will feature tapestries created in recent decades, revealing the artistic individuality and virtuosic technique of the author. The creative process will also be evidenced by fragments of the workshop exhibited in the exhibition – moments of weaving frozen in time as seen by the master himself.
“Looking at Feliksas Jakubauskas’s tapestries, we can not only see them. We can hear and read them. From threads, colors, and shapes, the author creates a space for feeling and thought. F. Jakubauskas left us not only exceptional works. He left the understanding that the weaving tradition can be alive, contemporary, full of music and poetry. Let his works continue to speak about beauty, patience, and the joy of creation,” invites the director of the LNDM Museum of Applied Arts and Design, Džiuljeta Žiugždienė.
Success and recognition found in weaving
For the exhibition organizers, it was important to reveal not only F. Jakubauskas’s creative legacy but also his special relationship with textiles. One of the exhibition curators, Dr. Jurgita Ludavičienė, emphasizes: “F. Jakubauskas is undoubtedly one of the most prominent Lithuanian textile artists who has greatly influenced several generations of contemporary textile artists. However, in the exhibition, revealing his creative path, we wanted an emotional tone – to show Feliksas as a creator who found meaning in his profession and is happy in it. His love for weaving, his incredible diligence, sense of color, and many other aspects that created the impression of happy existence in textiles.”
Inviting to the exhibition, curator Dr. Lijana Natalevičienė suggests getting to know F. Jakubauskas’s creative world more closely: “To look around his studio, see the loom where cardboard turned into fabric, see the brightest tapestries of the last four decades. F. Jakubauskas is a special textile phenomenon that could only grow in a soil like Lithuania. His strength is positivity and the ability to awaken the deepest human feelings. The artist created a world without inner turmoil and destruction, touching what is important and close to everyone, placing a whole world in the tapestry. And he did it simply, with elementary artistic means. Technical mastery is also very important in his work – perfect weaving skills turning craft into art.”
Feliksas Jakubauskas, who bore the name of the fortunate one (Latin felix – happy, bringing success), devoted most of his life to textiles. The opportunity to receive excellent education and learn the latest textile trends not only from art albums but also live helped him form a distinctive creative language. F. Jakubauskas’s artistic path began at the Stepas Žukas Applied Arts Technical School in Kaunas, where composition was taught by the interwar art deco-based stained glass artist Filomena Ušinskaitė. Later, at the Lithuanian State Institute of Art, he studied under textile authorities Juozas Balčikonis and Vladas Daujotas, and continued his studies at the Budapest Academy of Applied Arts. In 1980, he graduated and obtained the education of a textile artist, tapestry specialist.
With talent, diligence, and loyalty to weaving, F. Jakubauskas earned recognition from the textile community, held nearly thirty solo exhibitions, participated in more than two hundred group exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad, and his work was awarded significant international prizes in Lodz, Pittsburgh, Chongju, Beijing, Budapest, and other international competitions.
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The artist was also invited to work on selection committees and expert groups for international exhibitions. Well acquainted with contemporary textile art experiments, F. Jakubauskas did not succumb to the temptations of new forms and remained faithful to classical tapestry weaving, but constantly expanded its possibilities. He conceptually transformed traditional technique, gave it modernity, supplemented it with poetry and the vibrant tradition of Lithuanian rural fabrics. Thus, a harmonious balance of tradition and modernity was formed in his work.
Music and poetry resonating in tapestries
F. Jakubauskas’s work is characterized by associative content based on poetic images and metaphors. He drew inspiration from literature, classical culture, biblical stories, and nature but avoided direct depiction. Clouds, sky, blooming flax fields, or evening coolness in his tapestries turned into abstract reflections on light and darkness, earthliness and spirituality.
The artist masterfully improvised with geometric forms – squares, triangles, circles, vertical and wavy lines. Composed differently each time, they conveyed sadness, joy, longing, or calm, giving rhythm and vibration to the fabric surface. It is no coincidence that F. Jakubauskas was called a “jazz artist”: echoes of preludes, nocturnes, fugues, and sonatas constantly resonate in the titles and compositions of his tapestries.
F. Jakubauskas’s distinctive creative language also grew out of the tradition of Lithuanian rural fabrics. He combined classical tapestry technique with enlarged fragments of traditional striped weaving, subtle color transitions, and shiny viscose threads. Thus, the rough, material texture of the fabric in his works merged with elegant forms, optical depth, and contemporary artistic expression. In the exhibition, F. Jakubauskas’s characteristic sensitivity can be felt in the metaphorical sound of threads – music created by colors, shapes, and weaving rhythms.
Until the end of the year, December 31, the exhibition “Feliksas Jakubauskas (1949–2025). The Joy of Weaving” can be seen at the LNDM Museum of Applied Arts and Design. Educational programs and tours accompanying the exhibition will help to learn more about the artist’s life story and work. Information about events is published on the LNDM website and social networks.
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