Name

Jurgis Miksevicius

Culture

Australian | Lithuanian

Gender

Male

Birth date

8 March 1923

Birth place

Siauliai, Lithuania View on map Close map

Death date

24 July 2014

Death Place

Bensville, Sydney, New South Wales. Australia View on map Close map

Movements

Australia from 29 October 1948

Occupations

Art teacher | Artist (mural) | Artist (painter) | Printmaker

Summary

Worked: Australia (NSW, ACT).

NGA IRN

18815

Context

Australia

Biography

Jurgis Miksevicius (1923 – 2014) was born on 8 March 23 at  Šiauliai, Lithuania. He was the second of three sons of Medgardas Miksevicius (civil engineer, cinema entrepreneur) and Elena Mikseviciene (medical practitioner). Miksevicius lived in Kaunas with his family where he attended  Kaunas Jesuit Gynnasium and Ausra Gymnasium. He enjoyed drawing throughout his childhood and at the age of 15 joined the adult drawing classes of Jonas Mackevicius (1872 – 1954) an impressionist painter and graduate of the Italian school.

The family fled to Germany in 1941 following the Russian invasion of Lithuania.  Miksevicius completed high school in Berlin and from 1945 – 1948 studied architecture at Darmstadt Technical University and fine arts at Lehwerkstatten der Bildenden Kunst, Kunstlerkolonie Darmstadt, Germany (Workshops of the Fine Arts, Darmstadt Artists’ Colony) He held his teacher, Professor Paul Thesing (1882 – 1954) a cubist painter, in high regard. “At the Bauhaus art school, he taught me not just how to look, but how to see.  I owe him everything.” (Miksevicius in conversation with his daughter, Carolyn Leigh.)

Miksevicius migrated to Australia as a displaced person, arriving in Sydney on the SS Charlton Sovereign on 29 October 1948.  He spent the first nine months at the Bathurst Migrant Camp where he was employed to decorate the recreation hall walls with caricatures of Australian sporting greats.  

He settled in Canberra in 1949, worked as a house painter and soon became a member and regular exhibitor with the Canberra Artists’ Society. while also exhibiting with fellow European expatriates.

Miksevicius and his new wife, Elva Lucas, settled in Sydney in 1953 and he became a member of the Contemporary Art Society, participating regularly in their exhibitions. He also joined Sydney Lithuanian artists' group Aitvaras" was a foundation member of the Six Directions, a group of Baltic artists and held close links with the predominantly Latvian Blue Brush Group based in Melbourne. Throughout the 1950s Miksevicius, while working as a cleaner, painted prolifically and exhibited widely in Australia and overseas.

In 1958 Miksevicius became a casual art teacher with the New South Wales Department of Education and accepted the opportunity to gain his Diploma of Education. Graduating from Sydney Teachers’ College in 1961 he was employed as an art teacher and Head teacher with the Department until his retirement in 1983. During this period Miksevicius chose to withdraw from exhibiting to explore his own artistic interests.

Post retirement, Miksevicius exhibited in Australia and internationally; a number of retrospective and survey exhibitions have also been held. [Carolyn Leigh, 29 March 2022]