(b Kupiskis, 8 Mar 1927). Lithuanian sculptor. He studied at the State Institute of Applied and Decorative Art in Kaunas, first under Viktoras Polis, then Juozas Mikenas (1901–64). His graduation work was a decorative relief, Training Horses (1952), for the Vilnius Hippodrome. He continued to explore the possibilities of decorative sculpture in his relief Lithuanian Dancer (1958) for the façade of the club of the cement factory in Naueyi Akmyane. His war memorial in the village of Purcipius (1961) became his best known work, largely because of the significance given such monuments during the years of Soviet power. The main figure, Grieving Mother, is of gabbro and is close in style to Karlis Zale’s ensemble at the Brothers’ Cemetery (1924–38) in Riga, while its painfully expressive form resembles the work of Ivan Mestrovic and Anton Starkopf. The use of female attire characteristic of the local area and the method of working with the material recall folk sculpture and gave rise to many imitations. In the following years Jakubonis received political commissions from Russia, including a monument to Lenin on Il’ich Square in Moscow (bronze and granite, 1967). The monument to Adam Mickiewicz (granite, 1979–82) by the church of St Anne in Vilnius was designed to fit the context of the surrounding city and unites the detailed forms of Lithuanian sculpture of the 1930s, as seen in the work of Vincentas Grybas (1890–1941) and Juozas Mikenas, with other 20th-century sculptural tendencies. Jakubonis also produced medals in the tradition of Petras Rimsa.

• Jakubonis, Gediminas
  • Lithuania, §III: After c 1780