On 23 September 2003, the sculpture “Jacques Lipchitz” by the Kaunas-born artist with world fame, Nehemia Arbit Blatas (1908–1999), was on display at the Tolerance Centre of the Vilnius Gaon State Jewish Museum. The artist’s wife, Regina Resnik Blatas, presented it to the museum, after the Beate Klarsfeld Foundation gave financial support.

Beate Klarsfeld, the president of the Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, Roma Žakaitienė, the minister for culture of the Republic of Lithuania, and Regina Resnik Blatas

The ceremony of the unveiling of the sculpture was a significant event honoring the world famous Litvak artists Arbit Blatas and Lipchitz. The event is part of the commemoration of Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Jews Genocide and the sixtieth anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto.

A graduate of the Kaunas Art Gymnasium, Arbit Blatas, and the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, a native of Druskininkai, became friends in the environment of the Paris school of art. Arbit Blatas, who joined l‘école de Paris in the 1920s became its visual historiographer creating a gallery of portraits of the most celebrated masters of the Paris school of art such as Picasso, Shagall, Soutine, Zadkin and others. The sculptures of Lipchitz and Soutine created by Arbit Blatas are standing in Paris.

Besides other awards, Arbit Blatas received the French National Order of the Legion of Honour for special contribution to the country’s culture. In 2008, Regina Resnik Blatas, the renowned opera singer, received a Lithuanian state award, the Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania in New York during the commemoration of the 100th birth anniversary of her husband. 

Regina Resnik Blatas and the director of the museum Emanuelis Zingeris by the sculpture.

The sculpture of Jacques Lipchitz and paintings by Arbit Blatas are displayed at the permanent exhibition “The Lost World and the Art Tradition of the Lithuanian Jewry” at the Tolerance Center of the Vilnius Gaon State Jewish Museum.

Photos by Gajane Leonenko