Adolfas Valeška
Adolfas Valeška (b. March 15, 1905, in Kybartai, Vilkaviskis County; died x) was a Lithuanian stained glass artist, painter, stage designer, and museum director who worked in Lithuania and in Chicago, Illinois.
Valeška graduated from the Kaunas Art School in 1928. He then began work as a church decorator, moving on to co-found a museum of religious art in Kaunas. From 1939 to 1944 he served as director of the Vilnius Art Museum. During this period his work was exhibited in a number of venues, including the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris, 1935; the Inernational Press Exhibition at the Vatican, 1935; and the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Berlin, 1937, where he earned a mdeal for designing the Lithuanian Pavilion.
Anticipating the Soviet occupation of Lithuania at the end of World War II, in 1944 he emigrated first to West Germany and then to the United States, where he established a studio in Chicago. He designed and executed a number of stained glass and slab glass works and mosaics, as well as acting as stage designer for the Lithuanian Opera Company.
Valeska's work includes:
- Mosaics and stained glass at St. Philomena's Church in Chicago
- Stained glass windows at O'Hare Airport, Chicago
- Stained glass windows at Temple Rodfei Zadek
- Stained glass windows at the former Marshall Fields, Chicago
- Staind glass at Holy Cross Church, Dayton, Ohio
- Freestanding windows currently exhibited at Navy Pier, Chicago
After Lithuania regained its independence in 1990, he returned home, where he passed away at the age of 93.
Sources
http://www.navypier.com/pdf/Smith_Museum_Timeline.pdf http://uscj.org/midwest/chicagorz/windows.html http://www.ldm.lt/Muziejusirpadaliniai/Valeska.htm http://www.lituanus.org/1996/96_4_01.htm http://uscj.org/midwest/chicagorz/windows.html