Jonas Mekas Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1922 - d. 2019

Jonas Mekas (Lithuanian: ['jon?s 'mæk?s]; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". His work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals worldwide.

Mekas was born in Semeniškiai, the son of Elžbieta (Jašinskaite) and Povilas Mekas. In 1944, Mekas left Lithuania to escape the advancing Red Army. En route, his train was stopped in Germany where he and his brother, Adolfas Mekas (1925–2011), were imprisoned in a labor camp in Elmshorn, a suburb of Hamburg, for eight months. The brothers escaped to hide on a farm near the Danish border two months until the end of the war.

After the war, Mekas lived in displaced persons' camps in Wiesbaden and Kassel. From 1946 to 1948, he studied philosophy at the University of Mainz and at the end of 1949 he emigrated with his brother to the U.S., settling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Two weeks after his arrival, he borrowed money to buy his first Bolex 16mm camera and began recording moments of his life. He discovered avant-garde film at venues such as Amos Vogel's pioneering Cinema 16, and he began curating avant-garde film screenings at Gallery East on Avenue A and Houston Street and at the Film Forum series at Carl Fisher Auditorium on 57th Street.