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In recent years, textile art has become a unique and representative phenomenon of Kaunas artistic life inspired by the Textile Department of Kaunas Art Faculty of the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts. A graduate and now teaching at the department Monika Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė is one of the prominent people whose artistic projects and initiatives have contributed to the expanded field of contemporary textile arts and artistic expression. Using the new Jacquard weaving techniques the artist reveals the textility of human life and reality, sensual and tactile perceptions that we keep in our memories and that arise from the individual or collective experience, authentic environment, and bodily sensations. This paper examines the art work of Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė in the horizon of feminine aesthetics. The paper discusses the tactility inherent in textile art and women's creation. It focuses on the haptic role and sensual experience of reality, the tactile sensation of physical reality and the depth of surfaces expressed in the work of Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė. The tactile perception derives from the long-term specific women's artistic tradition. So the textile is considered as women's expressive field par excellence. Textility can be observed in women's literature as well. Therefore, in exploring the feminine expression and tactile sensations the article seeks to highlight the creative relationships of Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė textile works with women's prose. The article comes to the conclusion that the work of the textile artist reveals the textile reality woven with the physical, psychological and social threads of human life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the subject of the importance of kontusz sashes between the 19th and early 20th centuries in Lithuania within the context of the historical record of textiles. As a consequence of a number of factors, men stopped wearing the so called national outfit - the kontusz costume together with its main accessory kontusz (Slutsk) sash in the period mentioned. The weaving of such sashes gradually vanished until it ceased completely and the sashes became either exhibits in the private collections of landlords, or were kept as relics of the past. Many of the sashes were destroyed completely, whilst for others a practical use was sought. Some konutsz sashes were adapted into the sewing of wall mats, cushions or spreads. At the end of the 19th century more and more kontusz sashes were taken to churches. It was pondered upon on how better to use these luxurious fabrics that were of a very specific form and décor. In some places attempts were made to lay them on the floor in front of catafalques, but mostly the sashes were given to more or less experienced masters so that they could make liturgical vestments from them. In the second half of the 20th century all liturgical vestments made from the kontusz sashes or their fragments that were found in churches were announced to be monuments of Lithuanian culture; they were art valuables that had to be looked after by the state. Such collections of clothing were housed in museums; with several of these collections belonging to a few churches of the Republic. The exhibition "Christianity in Lithuanian Art" provided a rare opportunity to see and explore how, during the creation of a liturgical vestment, such a fabric of original form and peculiar décor as the konutsz sash, was integrated into its composition. This compositional integration exemplified the crossing and interaction of a few different artistic cultures. This article draws attention to these liturgical vestments: in which the creator of the vestment not only preserved as much of the kontusz sash itself as was possible, highlighting its composition and decor, but also used the sash to create a new work. Among the most successful examples of these works, the liturgical vestments of Lithuanian Art Museum and the church of Panevežys are mentioned. The article presents various photographs of vestments in which kontusz sashes were used in one way or another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]