Krasauskas Stasis Algirdo (lit. Stasys Krasauskas) (1929-1977) - Lithuanian Soviet graphic artist and teacher, laureate of the USSR State Prize (1976), People's Artist of the Lithuanian SSR (1977). Krasauskas Stasis was born on June 1, 1929 in Kaunas. He graduated from high school there. In 1948-1952 he studied at the Vilnius State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports. He repeatedly won the title of champion of the Lithuanian SSR in swimming in various styles at different distances. He received his art education at the Art Institute of the Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius (1952-1958).
Since 1961 he taught at the Art Institute. He was a close friend of the poet RI Rozhdestvensky. He created easel prints and illustrations for literary works in various techniques (woodcut, lithography, linocut, etching). The works are characterized by metaphor, laconicism and expression of white lines on a black background. Since 1959 he has participated in exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad. More than 30 personal exhibitions took place in Moscow, Krakow, Sofia, Belgrade, Magdeburg and other cities of the world. The most famous works of Krasauskas include the linocut "Youth" (1961), used as the emblem of the magazine «Youth» («a round girlish face with ears of wheat instead of hair [here Din Rubin summed up the memory: the face is more oval than round, and the hair is depicted not in the form of ears, but in the form of thin, flexible willow branches with narrow leaves. - Ed.]»). It is also reproduced on the artist's tombstone. Author of cycles of illustrations to the poems of Y. Marcinkevičius «Blood and Ashes» (woodcut, 1960), «Wall» (autozincography, 1969), to the book of poems by E. Mezhelaitis «Man» (woodcut, 1961-1962), to books by E. Mezhelaitis «Cardiogram», «Avia sketches», to the book by A. T. Venclova «Do you know that land?» (1964), as well as to the poem by R. I. Rozhdestvensky «Requiem» (1961), «Sonnets» by W. Shakespeare (autozincography, 1966), «Song of Songs», the poem by V. V. Mayakovsky «Vladimir Ilyich Lenin» (1970 ). Among other works - the cycle series of engravings «Movement» (1971), the cycle of prints «Forever Alive» (1975). The cycle «Forever Alive» is based on the plot of a fresco created by an unknown German artist on the facade of a church in Zelenopolye (Kaliningrad region) (the fresco is dedicated to the memory of those killed in the First World War.
S. A. Krasauskas died of laryngeal cancer on February 10, 1977 in Moscow at the P. A. Herzen Cancer Institute. He was buried at the Antakalnis cemetery in Vilnius. Awards and titles: Order of the Badge of Honor; Bronze medal at the International Exhibition of Book Art in Leipzig (1962) - for illustrations to the book by E. Mezhelaitis «Man»; State Prize of the Lithuanian SSR (1965) - for illustrations to the book by E. Mezhelaitis «Man»; Honored Art Worker of the Lithuanian SSR (1968); USSR State Prize (1976) - for the cycle of engravings «Forever Alive» (1973-1975); People's Artist of the Lithuanian SSR (1977).
