Contributions

During the Soviet occupation, the authoritarian landscape developed as a space of radical physical transformations, where the experiences of those changes were suppressed, representation was censored, and perception was ideologically directed. The work of Lida Meškaitytė, a miniature artist who lived and created in the village of Antšvenčiai in the Jurbarkas district, stands as a unique testament to this environment. A self-taught, disabled young woman from the formerly German Klaipėda region quickly gained recognition from the authorities of the time due to her rural origins and depictions of pastoral landscapes. However, this recognition came at a cost—even today, the artist’s personality and creative legacy are often evaluated uncritically, overshadowing the contradictions of her era and the environmental changes of the time.