Jonas Čeponis (1926–2003) was one of the most prominent Lithuanian artists of the late 20th century, a graduate and later professor of the Lithuanian Art Institute and a 1984 laureate of the Lithuanian SSR State Prize. His works are held by the Lithuanian Art Museum, the National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum and the MO Museum. He mostly painted expressive, romanticised landscapes of his native village, built around the motif of the sun.
Jonas Čeponis was born on April 2, 1926, in Gaveikėnai (Utena County) and died on January 7, 2003, in Vilnius. He was one of the most prominent Lithuanian artists of the late 20th century. In 1951, he graduated from the Lithuanian Art Institute; he taught there from 1980 to 1988 and became a professor in 1988. From 1977 to 1980, he taught at the Vilnius Engineering Construction Institute. Since 1951, he participated in exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad (Russia, Poland, Germany, the USA, Japan, Canada, and others). He mostly painted expressive landscapes of his beloved native village with a sun motif, romanticizing them and having been fascinated since childhood with how "the [sun] would cast a golden bridge across the lake." In 1984, he received the State Prize of the Lithuanian SSR. His works are in the Lithuanian Art Museum, the National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum, the MO Museum, and other museums in Lithuania and abroad (Poland, France, Germany, etc.).
Prepared based on “Jonas Čeponis. A Colorful View of the World,” Vilnius, 2016; Dictionary of Lithuanian Artists 1945–1990, edited by M. Žvirblytė.
