ZIKARAS, TEISUTIS (1922-1991)

"Figure Study" (1954) 
charcoal
49 x 21cm 
Signed lower right
*private collection, Melbourne
 
Teisutis 'Joe' Zikaras was an important Lithuanian-born Australian Sculptor. He studied at the School of Fine Arts, Kaunas, Lithuania, where his father Juozas, creator of Lithuania's famous Liberty statue, was Head. He left Lithuania after its takeover by Russia and spent two years 1946–48 teaching drawing and sculpture at a campus of the École des Arts et Métiers in Freiburg, Germany, an art school for Lithuanian refugees where Aleksandras Marčiulionis was a principal. He arrived in Melbourne as a "displaced person" in 1949. From 1952 to 1956, he was employed as a sculptor on the Melbourne War Memorial. He proceeded to become Lecturer in Sculpture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He was a member of the Victorian Sculptors' Society and with artists such as Ola Cohn, Clifford Last, Clement Meadmore & Inge King, exhibited at Brummels Gallery in Twelve Melbourne Sculptors (1957), then co-founded the influential "Centre Five" group, which split from the society. His works are represented in countless important National collections including the NGV, AGNSW & Monash University.