Jonas Rimša Banista, 1959

Museum authorship. Works of the artist are held in the LNMA, NCMA, Tartle.

One of the most prominent Lithuanian expatriate artists, Jonas Rimša (1903-1978), seeking happiness, emigrated to South America in 1926, where he wandered, gaining impressions and perfecting his artistic creativity. From 1943, invited by the Bolivian government, J. Rimša lived, created, and worked as a pedagogue in Sucre, later in 1944, he founded a private art school in La Paz. Rimša's abundant creative legacy includes over 1000 paintings (scattered throughout the USA, Australia, South America, Europe). Part of his works is now kept in the National Art Museum, the National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum in Kaunas. The artist painted figurative compositions, landscapes, portraits, and created an original watercolor technique. For his contributions to Bolivian culture, J. Rimša was awarded the title of Bolivian honorary citizen (1950). The Bolivian government acquired about 250 of his paintings and handed them over to the most important state institutions.