Lithuanian textile design in the 1st half of the 20th century: needs, objectives, expression

Straipsnio tikslas - apžvelgti XX a. pirmos pusės lietuvių tekstilės dizaino raidą kaip vientisą meninės raiškos sritį, aprėpiančią ne tik didesnio dailėtyrininko dėmesio susilaukusią unikaliąją kūrybą, bet ir mažai tyrinėtą masinę audinių produkciją. Taikant daugiausia istorinį ir faktografinį-analitinį metodus, bandoma nustatyti skirtingas tekstilės sritis vienijusius ir skyrusius veiksnius, meninę formą, išsiaiškinti tekstilės dizainą plėtojusių asmenų indėlį į šią sritį.The article presents an overview of the development of Lithuanian textile design as an integral sphere of artistic expression in the 1st half of the 20th century, encompassing not only unique work, but also the under-researched industrial production of textiles. Although in Lithuania textile was the first to switch from craft to machine production, in the 2nd half of the 19th century and the early 2oth century economic factors and the competition of textiles produced by other provinces of the Russian empire caused the dominance of small-scale industries oriented to the local needs. The turn of the 20th century saw attempts to commercialise the traditional textiles woven in villages. Thanks to the efforts of landowners like Juozapas Montvila and Anna Mohl, textile workshops/schools that sought to popularise traditional weaving techniques were established in manors of the Kaunas, Vilnius, Vitebsk, and Courland governorates. The textile and knitwear industry grew intensively after World War I. Wool fabric factories Drobė (1922), Liteksas (1927), Lima, Gamyba, Nemunas, and Bostonas, as well as silk fabric factories Kauno Audiniai and Pluoštas, were established in this period. A successful linen fabric enterprise, Kučinskas-Pabedinskai, operated in Plungė. The fabric industry accounted for a fourth of the whole Lithuanian industry's output. The Kauno Audiniai company, which manufactured various kinds of patterned fabrics, provides an insight into the everyday culture of that time - society's needs, tastes, and fashion trends. The textile industry followed cosmopolitan trends, except for the spheres that served national interests (fabrics for folk costumes, linen towels and tablecloths decorated with folk ornaments). In the interwar period, the development of commercial folk-type textile became a priority. In 1920-1922, thanks to the efforts of the Society of Lithuanian Artists, a sash workshop operated in Skapiškis, satisfying the local demand for stylised "folk" garments. Also in the interwar period, the landowner and artist Ona Bagnickaitė set up a private weaving workshop in the Santekliai manor, which popularised folk ornaments in professional textile. Bagnickaitės example encouraged the artist Antanas Tamošaitis to take up textile. Together with his wife, the crafts expert Anastazija Tamošaitienė, he opened a carpet manufactory - the most famous interwar weaving workshop, which manufactured carpets that represented Lithuania's culture in the international arena - in Ąžuolų Būda in 1935. Lithuanian textile design of the 1st half of the 20th century reflected European trends, yet throughout the discussed period the problem of national identity and style, related to the artists' neo-romantic attitudes and the states political intentions, remained very important