Aspazija Surgailienė, née Vaivadaitė (1928–2011), was a Lithuanian printmaker and one of the classics of Lithuanian children’s book illustration. A 1958 graduate of the Lithuanian State Art Institute, she illustrated more than 70 books, mostly Lithuanian folk tales, and her miniature-book set “Fairy-Tale Chest” (1961) ran to four versions and nearly 200,000 copies. Her distinctive style stylised folk art in hand-coloured linocuts blending graphic and painterly expression.
Aspazija Surgailienė, née Vaivadaitė (1928–2011), was a Lithuanian printmaker and one of the classics of Lithuanian children’s book illustration. Born in Tauragė, she graduated in 1958 from the Lithuanian State Art Institute in Vilnius, where she studied under Jonas Kuzminskis and met her husband, the painter Leopoldas Surgailis. Her early linocuts of the late 1950s – churches, trees and village scenes, signed with her maiden name Vaivadaitė – belong to the period of the post-Stalin thaw. By the end of the 1960s she had developed a distinctive style based on the stylisation of Lithuanian folk art, working in a mixed technique of hand-coloured linocut that combined graphic and painterly expression. She illustrated more than 70 books, mostly Lithuanian folk tales and their literary versions, and drew for the children’s magazine “Genys”. Her “Fairy-Tale Chest” (1961), an innovative set of miniature books in a box, became so popular that she created four versions of it, with a combined print run of nearly 200,000 copies. She also created print cycles on themes of Lithuanian tales and songs, such as “Flowers” (1973), “Seasons” (1980) and “The Bride’s Song” (1982). After Lithuania regained independence she turned to stained glass and textiles. In 2025 the Vilnius Graphic Art Centre revisited her legacy in the exhibition “Aspazija: Ethnomodernism”. Her works are held by the Lithuanian National Museum of Art and the Šiauliai “Aušra” Museum.
