Jau šį pavasarį Frank Zappa paminklo ,stovinčio Vilniuje, kopija bus atidengta muzikanto gimtajame mieste - Baltimorėje (JAV)

Šis Sauliaus Paukščio sumanymas - turbūt labiausiai išgarsino Lietuvos vardą pasaulyje pastaraisiais metais.

Realizuoti sumanyma padėjo bičiulis ir bendražygis Saulius Pilinkus, nenuilstantis Artūras Baublys, bei nuoširdžioji Roma Matiukienė.

2008 metų gegužį Saulius Paukštys ir Artūras Baublys Baltimorėje pristatė Frank Zappa projektą miesto valdžiai. Idėja buvo puikiai priimta. O prieš kelias dienas iš Baltimorės atskriejo žinia kad paminklui jau skirta konkreti vieta - tai reiškia kad jau šį pavasarį Frank Zappa paminklas bus atidengtas Baltimorėje. Paminklas jau pagamintas ir tuojau iškeliaus į JAV.

Paminklas Frank Zappa buvo atidengtas Vilniuje 1995 metų gruodžio 16 dieną. Paminklą sukūrė profesorius Konstantinas Bogdanas, architektas - Valdas Ozarinskas. Biustas - išlietas iš bronzos ir sveria 160 kg., kolona - iš legiruoto nerūdijančio plieno - kolona sveria 350 kg.

 

DĖKOJAME MŪSŲ DIDIESIEMS MECENATAMS -

GINTARUI DIDŽIOKUI

VILNIAUS MIESTO SAVIVALDYBEI

KĘSTUČIUI SIRUČIUI

GAMYKLAI “ACHEMA”

JŪRATEI ZABIELAITEI

JAV AMBASADAI VILNIUJE

ARTŪRUI ZUOKUI

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Žiniasklaida apie FRANK ZAPPA paminklą -

Frankas Zappa, dainavęs apie „Plastikinius žmones“, dar kartą buvo išlietas iš bronzos, praneša „Associated Press“. 1995 m. keista Lietuvos menininkų ir intelektualų grupelė sugebėjo pastatyti ekscentriško rokerio biustą Vilniaus senamiestyje. Dabar jie nori pastatyti jo kopiją gimtajame F. Zappos mieste.Saulius Paukštys, ilgalaikis F. Zappa gerbėjų klubo prezidentas, trečiadienį lankėsi Baltimorėje, kur pristatė F. Zappos biustą miesto viešajai meno komisijai. „Jis jau iškaltas, paruoštas gabenti į JAV -, sakė kartu su S. Paukščiu keliavęs viešųjų ryšių konsultantas ir F. Zappos gerbėjas Artūras Baublys. - Kai tik Baltimorė sutiks ir nurodys mums adresą, mes jį supakuosime ir savo sąskaita nuvešime. Tai bus trijų su puse milijonų žmonių dovana Jungtinėms Amerikos Valstijoms“.         Prieš sumontuojant pirmąją skulptūrą, tarp F. Zappos ir Lietuvos nebuvo jokio ryšio. Ūsuotas, prieš valdžią nusiteikęs muzikantas gimė Baltimorėje, Italijos emigranto šeimoje, ir mirė nuo prostatos vėžio 1993 m., būdamas 52-ų metų amžiaus. Jis niekuomet nesilankė Baltijos šalyse. Tačiau jo muzikos klausėsi Lietuvos avangardo mėgėjai, ypač po nepriklausomybės atgavimo. Meno fotografas S. Paukštys įkūrė jo gerbėjų klubą ir netgi suorganizavo meno parodą su įsivaizduojamu susirašinėjimu tarp jo ir F. Zappos, kurio jis nepažinojo. Klubas užsakė biustą iš žinomo skulptoriaus Konstantino Bogdano, Sovietiniais laikais pagaminusio daugybę Lenino portretų. Klubo nariai sugebėjo įtikinti miesto merą ir tarybą, kad biustas būtų pastatytas viešoje aikštėje, prieš Belgijos ambasadą. „Tai įvyko praėjus tik ketveriems metams po nepriklausomybės atgavimo, - sakė S. Paukštys. - Galimybė pastatyti šį F. Zappos biustą buvo lyg naujos sistemos ir naujai atkurtos demokratijos išbandymas, norėjome pabandyti ar tai įmanoma ar ne.“ S. Paukštys ir A. Baublys tikisi panašaus draugiško atsakymo ir iš Baltimorės, kurios merė Sheila Dixon praėjusiais metais paskelbė rugpjūčio 9-ąją Franko Zappos diena. Vilniaus meras Juozas Imbrasas išsiuntė laišką Sh. Dixon, prašydamas priimti dovaną. „Tikiuosi, kad originalios Franko Zappos skulptūros kopijos pagaminimas Vilniuje ir atvežimas į Baltimorę padės įamžinti vieno iš didžiausių 20 amžiaus menininkų atminimą“, rašė J. Imbrasas. A. Baublio apskaičiavimu, biusto sukūrimas ir pervežimas kainuos 50 000 JAV dolerių. Miestas būtų atsakingas už jos pastatymą, priežiūrą ir vietą, kurioje skulptūra stovės.

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Bust of Frank Zappa to be erected in hometown of Baltimore

This undated photo provided by Saulius Paukstys, shows a cast used to create a replica of a bust of musician Frank Zappa in an art studio in Vilnius, Lithuania. The original bust, which typically sits in a public square in Vilnius, can be seen in the background. Paukstys, longtime president of a Zappa fan club, was in Baltimore Wednesday May 7, 2008, to pitch the Zappa bust to the city’s

Associated Press Writer / May 7, 2008

BALTIMORE—Frank Zappa, who sang about “Plastic People,” has been cast in bronze. Again.

more stories like this

In 1995, a quirky bunch of Lithuanian artists and intellectuals managed to erect a bust of the eccentric rocker in downtown Vilnius, the capital of the former Soviet republic.

Now, they’ve given a replica to Zappa’s hometown.

Saulius Paukstys, longtime president of a Zappa fan club, pitched the Zappa bust Wednesday to Baltimore’s public art commission, and the commissioners, clearly charmed by his dogged efforts, voted unanimously to accept the gift. They’ll figure out later where exactly to place it.

“It’s carved already, and it’s ready to be shipped to the U.S.,” said Arturas Baublys, a public relations consultant and Zappa admirer who joined Paukstys for the presentation.

Before the initial sculpture was erected, there was no known connection between Zappa and Lithuania. The mustachioed, antiestablishment musician was born in Baltimore to an Italian immigrant father and died of prostate cancer in 1993 at age 52, never having visited the Baltic state.

But his music was popular among the Lithuanian avant-garde, particularly after the country declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. Paukstys, an art photographer, launched the fan club and even set up an art exhibit with imagined correspondence between himself and Zappa, whom he had never met.

The club commissioned the bust from Konstantinas Bogdanas, a respected sculptor who cast many portraits of Lenin during the Soviet era. And members managed to persuade the mayor and city council to place it in a public square, in front of the Belgian embassy.

“It was just four years after independence,” Paukstys said through Baublys, who translated from Lithuanian. “The opportunity for this Zappa statue was also like a trial for the new system and the newly established democracy, if that (was) possible or not.”

Baublys noted that the bust is now the second-most popular tourist attraction in Vilnius after the Museum of Genocide Victims, which is in a former KGB building and includes prison cells and an execution chamber.

Paukstys and Baublys were both delighted at the friendly response from Baltimore, where last year Mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed Aug. 9 as “Frank Zappa Day.”

“I think it’s an incredibly generous gift,” said public art commission member Steve Ziger, an architect. “I find the piece a good piece of art that I think we would be honored to have here. We just need to find an appropriate placement.”

Vilnius Mayor Juozas Imbrasas also advocated for the Zappa bust in a letter to Dixon.

“I hope that replication of the original statue of Frank Zappa in Vilnius and bringing it to Baltimore will perpetuate the memory of one of the greatest artists of the (20th) century,” Imbrasas wrote.

Baublys estimated the cost of creating and shipping the bust at $50,000. The city will be responsible for installation and maintenance.

Baublys said the project has the blessing of Zappa’s widow, Gail, who as head of the Zappa Family Trust has been protective of her late husband’s image and music. Gail Zappa’s attorney did not return messages seeking comment; neither did agents for two of Zappa’s sons, Dweezil and Ahmet.

The public art commission, created last year, has not always been so quick to approve projects. It effectively quashed plans for a statue of former mayor and governor William Donald Schaefer at the Inner Harbor after commissioners said planners should consider alternate designs and locations.

Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for Dixon, noted that Zappa belongs in the pantheon of Baltimore’s famously offbeat favorite sons and daughters.

“Like John Waters and a lot of artists we’re proud of,” Clifford said, “it’s a big deal that Frank Zappa is from Baltimore.”

——

On the Net:

Frank Zappa:

http://www.zappa.com

Vilnius tourism:

http://www.vilnius-tourism.lt/topic.php?tid68&aid593

Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts:

 

Archive for Thursday, May 08, 2008

Zappa could have put this to music

A Lithuanian fan club gives the statue to the musician’s birth city.

By Jonathan Pitts
May 08, 2008 in print edition A-25

“What’s new in Baltimore?” Frank Zappa used to sing at the end of a long, characteristically off-the-wall rock jam he called “Clowns on Velvet.”

What’s new in Baltimore, the city in which the late rock star was born in 1940, is a public sculpture of Zappa himself, and the tale behind the 15-foot statue that a public arts panel accepted Wednesday night as a gift to the city is as incongruous as Zappa’s genre-bending music career.

Most residents of Baltimore are aware of their hometown’s claim on Edgar Allan Poe, H.L. Mencken and John Waters, but fewer know that Zappa, who made more than 50 records between the late 1950s and his death in 1993, was born in Baltimore, the son of Italian immigrants from Sicily.

Zappa’s father, a chemist and mathematician, worked at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The family moved to California when Frank was 10.

Until they met Wednesday night, some members of the Baltimore Public Art Commission, which voted unanimously to accept the gift of the bronze sculpture – valued at about $50,000 – were unaware of Zappa’s connection to Baltimore.

However, the donors of the bust, who come from much farther afield – in fact, from a nation Zappa never visited – are well aware of his background.

“We’re honored to have a chance to present this Frank Zappa monument to the city of Baltimore,” said Saulius Paukstys, 43, president of one of the biggest and, arguably, most dedicated Frank Zappa fan clubs – in, of all places, Lithuania. “As an artist, and much more than that, he has meant a great deal to the Lithuanian people.”

If Zappa has been something of an unknown prophet in his own land, people like Paukstys, a photographer, have long held him in high regard as a symbol of free expression in the post-Cold War former Soviet bloc. “Frank Zappa was a voice of freedom,” Paukstys said.

After 1990, when Western music became available in their home country, Paukstys and friends like Saulius Pilinkus, an art historian, often gathered to listen to Zappa’s music. The fan club they started eventually numbered more than 300.

The club’s main goal was to get a bust of the musician made and put up for permanent display. In 1995, the Vilnius City Council signed on to the plan. Kontantinas Bogdanas, the nation’s best-known sculptor, created a bronze Zappa head that was mounted on a stainless-steel column in a Vilnius park.

“It was a test of Lithuania’s [new] freedom,” Paukstys told Rolling Stone magazine in 2002. The Zappa monument is still the second-most-popular tourist site in Vilnius.

In time, the fan club decided to commission a replica of the piece and donate it to Zappa’s home country. Their first idea was to offer it to Los Angeles, where Zappa lived for many years before his death, at 52, of prostate cancer.

But by the time the replica was complete, Carlos Aranaga, a State Department official who grew up in Baltimore, was working at the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius and got wind of the project. “I’m proud of Baltimore’s cultural heroes,” said Aranaga, now stationed in Washington. “Mencken, Eubie Blake. To Lithuanians, Zappa is like the Mencken of rock – a true iconoclast.”

At Aranaga’s suggestion, a contingent headed by Paukstys targeted Baltimore. Gail Zappa, the musician’s widow, has said she avidly supports placing the sculpture in Baltimore.

Paukstys said the completed bronze of Zappa will be ready for shipping from Lithuania to Baltimore within 10 days.

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Best Of Frank Zappa May Be Erected In Baltimore

BALTIMORE (AP) ―

Click to enlarge

Frank Zappa, who sang about “Plastic People,” has been cast in bronze. Again.

In 1995, a quirky bunch of Lithuanian artists and intellectuals managed to erect a bust of the eccentric rocker in downtown Vilnius, the capital of the former Soviet republic.

Now, they want to place a replica in Zappa’s hometown.

Saulius Paukstys, longtime president of a Zappa fan club, was in Baltimore Wednesday to pitch the Zappa bust to the city’s public art commission.

“It’s carved already, and it’s ready to be shipped to the U.S.,” said Arturas Baublys, a public relations consultant and Zappa admirer who made the trip with Paukstys. “Whenever Baltimore says, ‘OK,’ and gives us an address to ship it to, we pack it and we ship it on our costs. And that’s a nation of three and a half million giving a present to the United States.”

Before the initial sculpture was erected, there was no known connection between Zappa and Lithuania. The mustachioed, antiestablishment musician was born in Baltimore to an Italian immigrant father and died of prostate cancer in 1993 at age 52, never having visited the Baltic state.

But his music was popular among the Lithuanian avant-garde, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the country’s independence in 1990 from the Soviet Union. Paukstys, an art photographer, launched the fan club and even set up an art exhibit with imagined correspondence between himself and Zappa, whom he had never met.

The club commissioned the bust from Konstantinas Bogdanas, a respected sculptor who cast many portraits of Lenin during the Soviet era. And members managed to persuade the mayor and city council to place it in a public square, in front of the Belgian embassy.

“It was just four years after independence,” Paukstys said through Baublys, who translated from Lithuanian. “The opportunity for this Zappa statue was also like a trial for the new system and the newly established democracy, if that (was) possible or not.”

Paukstys and Baublys hope for a similar friendly response from Baltimore, where last year Mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed Aug. 9 as Frank Zappa Day.”

Vilnius Mayor Juozas Imbrasas sent a letter to Dixon asking her to accept the gift.

“I hope that replication of the original statue of Frank Zappa in Vilnius and bringing it to Baltimore will perpetuate the memory of one of the greatest artists of the (20th) century,” Imbrasas wrote.

Baublys estimated the cost of creating and shipping the bust at $50,000. The city would be responsible for installation and maintenance at a yet-to-be determined location.

He said the project has the blessing of Zappa’s widow, Gail, who as head of the Zappa Family Trust has been protective of her late husband’s image and music. Gail Zappa’s attorney did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment, and an agents for two of Zappa’s sons, Dweezil and Ahmet, did not return phone calls.

 

 

 

Head’s up … The bronze bust of Frank Zappa’s head in Vilnius, Lithuania. Photograph: Richard Gardner/Rex

When we were last in eastern Europe, we almost made a sidetrack to Vilnius. We were enticed by Lithuania’s fascinating history and rich cultural heritage. But mostly we just wanted to see their statue of Frank Zappa’s head.

Now, at last, Baltimore is taking a page from Vilnius’ book.

Thirteen years ago, a band of plucky Lithuanian intellectuals pooled their funds, solicited their friends, and built a bronze bust of the musical iconoclast. Saulius Paukstys, longtime president of a Zappa fanclub, even convinced authorities that the statue should be erected in downtown Vilnius, in front of the Belgian embassy.

Zappa had died of cancer just two years before, in 1993, but Lithuania’s capital city was an odd place for a tribute. Zappa was not, after all, Lithuanian (or Belgian, for that matter). He had never even visited the place. But his music was dearly loved by the avant-garde hipsters in the Lithuanian independence movement - and these same intellectuals were the ones running the show after the Baltic state declared independence from Russia in 1990.

“The opportunity for this Zappa statue was also like a trial for the new system and the newly established democracy,” Paukstys explained to the Associated Press this week.

Before long the Zappa bust had become Vilnius’ second-most popular tourist attraction (behind the rather-less-quirky Museum of Genocide Victims).

This week, Paukstys journeyed to Baltimore, USA, to make an offer to Frank Zappa’s hometown: would Baltimore like a bronze Zappa-head of its own? Baltimore’s Public Art Commission voted unanimously to accept the gift. “I think it’s incredibly generous,” said commissioner Steve Ziger. “I find the piece a good piece of art that I think we would be honoured to have here. We just need to find an appropriate placement.”

Paukstys and his comrades had already arranged for the casting of a replica, and were just awaiting the OK from Baltimore authorities before shipping it across the ocean. The cost of creating and shipping the bust is estimated at $50,000 (£25,000), but the city will be responsible only for installation and maintenance.

Vilnius’s mayor, Juozas Imbrasas, said he approved heartily of the project. “I hope that replication of the original statue of Frank Zappa in Vilnius and bringing it to Baltimore will perpetuate the memory of one of the greatest artists of the [20th] century,” he wrote. Frank Zappa’s widow, Gail, is also understood to have given her blessing.

 

Baltimore to get bust of Frank Zappa

00:01 AEST Sun May 11 2008 258 days 21 hours 18 minutes ago

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Jan 24, 2009

Late rocker Frank Zappa, who sang about Plastic People, has been cast in bronze. Again.

In 1995, a quirky bunch of Lithuanian artists and intellectuals managed to erect a bust of the eccentric rocker in downtown Vilnius, the capital of the former Soviet republic.

Now, they’ve given a replica to Zappa’s hometown, the east coast city of Baltimore.

Saulius Paukstys, longtime president of a Zappa fan club, pitched the Zappa bust to Baltimore’s public art commission, and the commissioners, clearly charmed by his dogged efforts, voted unanimously to accept the gift. They’ll figure out later where exactly to place it.

“It’s carved already, and it’s ready to be shipped to the US,” said Arturas Baublys, a public relations consultant and Zappa admirer who joined Paukstys for the presentation.

Before the initial sculpture was erected, there was no known connection between Zappa and Lithuania. The mustachioed, anti establishment musician was born in Baltimore to an Italian immigrant father and died of prostate cancer in 1993 at age 52, never having visited the Baltic state.

But his music was popular among the Lithuanian avant-garde, particularly after the country declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. Paukstys, an art photographer, launched the fan club and even set up an art exhibit with imagined correspondence between himself and Zappa, whom he had never met.

The club commissioned the bust from Konstantinas Bogdanas, a respected sculptor who cast many portraits of Lenin during the Soviet era. And members managed to persuade the mayor and city council to place it in a public square, in front of the Belgian embassy.

“It was just four years after independence,” Paukstys said through Baublys, who translated from Lithuanian. “The opportunity for this Zappa statue was also like a trial for the new system and the newly established democracy, if that (was) possible or not.”

Baublys noted that the bust is now the second-most popular tourist attraction in Vilnius after the Museum of Genocide Victims, which is in a former KGB building and includes prison cells and an execution chamber.

Paukstys and Baublys were both delighted at the friendly response from Baltimore, where last year Mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed Aug. 9 as “Frank Zappa Day.”

“I think it’s an incredibly generous gift,” said public art commission member Steve Ziger, an architect. “I find the piece a good piece of art that I think we would be honoured to have here. We just need to find an appropriate placement.”

Vilnius Mayor Juozas Imbrasas also advocated for the Zappa bust in a letter to Dixon.

“I hope that replication of the original statue of Frank Zappa in Vilnius and bringing it to Baltimore will perpetuate the memory of one of the greatest artists of the (20th) century,” Imbrasas wrote.

Baublys estimated the cost of creating and shipping the bust at $50,000 ($A53,095). The city will be responsible for installation and maintenance.

Baublys said the project has the blessing of Zappa’s widow, Gail, who as head of the Zappa Family Trust has been protective of her late husband’s image and music. Gail Zappa’s lawyer did not return messages seeking comment; neither did agents for two of Zappa’s sons, Dweezil and Ahmet.

The public art commission, created last year, has not always been so quick to approve projects. It effectively quashed plans for a statue of former mayor and governor William Donald Schaefer at the Inner Harbor after commissioners said planners should consider alternate designs and locations.

Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for Dixon, noted that Zappa belongs in the pantheon of Baltimore’s famously offbeat favourite sons and daughters.

“Like (movie director) John Waters and a lot of artists we’re proud of,” Clifford said, “it’s a big deal that Frank Zappa is from Baltimore.”

 

© AP 2008

 

 

Take My Bronze Zappa Bust, Please!

By BEN NUCKOLS, AP

Posted: 2008-05-08 08:56:29

Filed Under: Music News

BALTIMORE