Petras Kalpokas

Background

Kalpokas was born on 31 March 1880 in the village of Miškinė, near Kvetkai, in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire (in the Biržai district of present-day Lithuania).

Education

From 1890 to 1895 he attended the Gymnasium of Jelgava, Latvia. He studied under guidance of Anton Ažbe and Wilhelm von Debschitz.

Career

He was expelled when he drew a teacher"s cartoon on a stove. In 1898 Kalpokas moved to Odessa where he spent two years as an art student. In 1892 the first exhibition of Kalpokas" drawings was organized in Riga.

Kalpokas continued his studies of arts in Munich.

Kalpokas attended Heimann Academy and Munich University. Between 1909 and 1920 Kalpokas traveled around Europe: Switzerland, Hungary, Italy.

In 1914 he attempted to organize a large one-man exhibition in Germany, but more than 120 of his paintings were lost due to World War I. After he returned to Lithuania, Kalpokas began teaching. First lecturing at drawing courses, established by Justinas Vienožinskis, he later taught at Kaunas Art Institute.

In 1928 Kalpokas held a large personal exhibition in Kaunas.

In 1930 he published a textbook on painting techniques and in 1945 became a professor

Achievements

• In 1890 (?) he received a bronze medal for his still life painting.