MEETING CLASSICS AND OTHER ANTIQUITIES 3
M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum: Unexpected Visual Parallels
In brief: Visiting one of the largest exhibitions in the history of M. K. Čiurlionis Museum is a must. The exhibition ‘Mirábile Visu / Wonderful to See’ presents plenty of works of various time periods, countries, techniques and genres. More than a thousand art objects will be displayed in nine halls of M. Žilinskas Art Gallery for four months.
The curators Osvaldas Daugelis and Daina Kamarauskienė decided to reveal the stories of the exhibits and collections. The history of the museum is also presented in texts following the display. There are many unexpected visual parallels in the show: the old and fragile Lithuanian folk sculpture and the portrait gallery of the Dukes Oginskiai; collection of various flags and photographs of Jan Bulhak; the picture ‘Cemetery-Homestead’ of Adomas Galdikas and B. V. Johanson’s canvas ‘Y. Stalin at M. Gorky’s’; gothic Madonna with a Pear and lithographs of Napoleonas Orda. Surprises and variety makes the display dynamic and lively.
Seaside Landscapes
The exhibition ‘Landscape in Painting: From A. Žmuidzinavičius to the 21st c. Artists‘ at A. Žmuidzinavičius Museum of Works and Collections offered to discover interpretations of landscape anew. Artists from Serbia (Mina Milosavljevic), Russia (Oleg Maliavkin), Sweden (Anneli Nilsson), Denmark (Anne Louise Høy Blicher Winther), Latvia (Janis Spalvinis and Guna Millersone), Estonia (Andrus Joonas), India (Babita Das and Tinku Das) and Lithuania (Bronius Gražys, Antanas Obcarskas, Kunigunda Dineikaitė, Aloyzas Stasiulevičius, Ričardas Zdanavičius, Algimantas Stanislovas Kliauga, Antanas Žmuidzinavičius’s granddaughter graphic artist G. Gučaitė) participate in the show. The company lived together at Palanga Creative House and painted images of the seaside last summer.
The Indian artists B. Das and T. Das interpreted the seacoast the most brightly. Their pictures are full of vital expression, sparkling colours and pulsating energy. A. Nilsson, M. Milosavljevic, A. S. Kliauga recorded more severe landscapes in their canvases. B. Gražys’s picture distinguished among others for its surreality Anne Louise Høy Blicher Winther’s canvas – for a subtle harmony, peace and wit.
K. Donelaitis
The Meno Parkas Gallery organised the exhibition ‘The Climbing Sun Again Was Wakening the World’, pre-empting the year 2014 that are announced to be the year of Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714-1780). The aim is to mark the tercentenary of the father of the Lithuanian fiction literature and to encourage artists (Žygimantas Augustinas, Arvydas Baltrūnas, Ina Budrytė, Linas Cicėnas, Kunigunda Dineikaitė, Ričardas Filistovičius, Eglė Gineitytė, Patricija Jurkšaitytė, Paulius Juška, Dalia Kasčiūnaitė, Aistė Kirvelytė, Linas Liandzbergis, Sigita Maslauskaitė, Mantas Maziliauskas, Simonas Skrabulis) to look back to his personal and creative heritage. The show was curated by Arūnė Tornau.
Works of the participants are supposed to broaden the image of the writer and his time and to offer interpretations of his most famous work ‘The Seasons’. At first glance the show creates a dull impression of the interpreted material; the colouring look dirty and compositions seem careless; there is a lack of love for both painting and motive. Haste, anxiety and disharmony – the curse that today’s art cannot avoid.
However, the impression is improved by the attempts to treat the subject with light humour and irony: Žygimantas Augustinas introduces the viewer to a possible reconstruction of K. Donelaitis’s scull and Sigita Maslauskaitė’s pictures gladden with sensitivity, human warmth and mastery.
The show raises a question that unites painting and literature: what do the works and K. Donelaitis have in common? And questions stimulate contemplation.