Jonas Rimša

1903–1978

Jonas Rimša (1903–1978) was a Lithuanian émigré painter, born in Svėdasai. In 1926 he left for South America: he worked on coffee plantations in Brazil and in 1931–1934 studied at the Buenos Aires academy of art. From 1943, at the invitation of the Bolivian government, he lived and taught in Sucre, and in 1944 he founded a private art school in La Paz. In 1950 he was made an honorary citizen of Bolivia for his services to its culture, and the government acquired some 250 of his paintings. From 1967 he lived in Santa Monica, USA. He painted more than 1,000 works – figure compositions, landscapes, portraits – and developed his own watercolour technique. His works are held by the Lithuanian National Museum of Art and the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art.

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