[Mikolajus Konstantinas Ciurlonis, visionary artist]

The author presents a very interesting account of the personality of M. K. Ciurlonis (1875-1911). He was regarded as a precursor of abstractionism and surrealism--"The poet of music and painting". Thousands of his music al compositions and pictures gave him a place among the very best of artists of Eastern Europe of his epoch. He used to say that the influence of music was shown in his paintings and the influence of paintings in his musical compositions. His own philosophy of art has been expressed in his letters written to his brother and to his bride whom Ciurlonis married after 11 years of rather platonic friendship (one year before his death). He was born in to a Polish family living in Eastern Poland. His first music teacher was his father, an organ player. A medical doctor, friend of Prince Ogiński facilitated the young man to attend the palace orchestra and after that the prince who was also a musical composer and a lover of art, helped Ciurlonis to study music in the best schools in Warsaw and Leipzig. Since his childhood Ciurlonis loved to draw and to paint. After having finished his music study he spent some months studying in the Academy of Fine Arts and after that he sacrificed himself to both arts. Influenced by his bride he considered himself to be Lithuanian and worked very hard for the liberation of Lithuania. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)