ABOUT EXPOSITIONS

M. K. ČIURLIONIS ART MUSEUM
V. Putvinskio St. 55, LT-44248 Kaunas

M. K. ČIURLIONIS PAINTING AND  GRAPHICS

LITHUANIAN FOLK ART (Is temporarily unavailable)

The museum is famous for its rich folk art collection from the 18 – 20 centuries including over 4 thousand folk sculptures. The collection presents the best examples of painting, graphics and sculpture. Saints, also fondly called “Dievukai” (Small Gods) in Lithuanian, are the dominant motif of the majority of the works. St. George, the symbol of victory and all good, is a favourite character in Lithuania. Other favourites include: St. Isidore, St. John the Baptist, St. John of Nepomuk, and St. Agatha.

16 – 19^TH CENTURY LITHUANIAN ART (Is temporarily unavailable)

Paintings form the largest part of exhibition. As in the rest of Europe during the 16–18th centuries, representative “swagger” portraiture, known for its pomposity, effects and splendour began to spread in Lithuania.

Not only local masters, but also invited foreign artists participated in the art life of Lithuania. The exhibition contains works by representatives of the Vilnius Art School – Karol Rypinski, Wincenty Dmochowski and Jan Rustem. It also includes works representating the new academicism by pupils of the St. Petersburg Art Academy – Tadeusz Gorecki, Jan Chrucki, Albert Wojciech Žamett, romanticist Michael Elviro Andriolli and also a representative of Western Europe realism – Edward Mateusz Römer.

These Lithuanian painters’ works are complemented by examples of Lithuanian church Art: two wooden sculptures of exceptionally sublime beauty – the Gothic Madonnas.

EARLY 20TH CENTURY LITHUANIAN ART
(THE WORKS OF THE GROUP "ARS" AND KAUNAS ART SCHOOL) (Is temporarily unavailable)

M. K. Čiurlionis museum is the national treasure trove of Lithuanian pictorial art from the first half of the 20^th century. Alongside the creations of ex-lecturers from Kaunas Art School – Justinas Vienuožinskis, Adomas Varnas, Kajetonas Sklėrius, Jonas Šileika, Petras Kalpokas, Adomas Galdikas, you can also find representatives of the groups “Ars” and “Independent”. These artists are distinctive through their individual espression and brave experimentation from the 1930’s: Antanas Samuolis, Viktoras Vizgirda, Antanas Gudaitis, Juozas Mikėnas, Leonardas Kazokas, Jonas Vaičius, Adolfas Valeška and others.

The group members championed modern and folk art, proclaimed individuality, novelty, originality, and artistic freedom. They cherished anti-naturalistic, anti-academic aesthetic attitudes. The ways these artists modelled their work stylistics were influenced by Paris school trends, Art deco and neoclassicism together with principles of local folk art.

MYKOLAS ŽILINSKAS ART GALLERY
Nepriklausomybės Sq. 12, LT-44311 Kaunas

ANCIENT ART

The largest Lithuanian collection of Ancient Egyptian artefacts is kept in the museum.

In the exhibition presents colourful death-masks, sarcophagus painting, a mummy and a unique papyrus fragment from “The Book of the Dead”.

The antique collection of ceramics is impressive with its diversity in form, artistic black-figured and red-figured décor; these include moulded dishes meant for different purposes and oil–lamps from 4 B. C. to 7 A. D. from Ancient Greece and Rome.

The exhibition also includes a collection of antique Roman glass.

APLIED ART OF THE 17TH TO 20TH CENTURIES

The history of porcelain is introduced through examples of Chinese and Japanese porcelain as well as those of the best known European porcelain manufactures.

The museum is proud to have unique Meissen manufacture examples, the first in Europe, which date from the beginning of the 18th century.

The museum also presents a faience collection with examples from German, Austrian, Russian and other countries’ manufactures. Here the visitor can admire three Verdures, woven after the well known chinoiserie artist J. B. Pillement’s (1728–1808) cartoons. Examples of 19^th to 20^th century Expressive Art porcelain, faience, glass and furniture, in spirit of Art Nouveau and Art Déco, complete the exhibition.

EUROPEAN FINE ART OF 16TH TO 20TH CENTURIES

A wide variety of styles, periods, artists and schools, varying from the late renaissance, baroque and classicism to romanticism, symbolism, impressionism, Art Nouveau and art trends from the second half of 20^th century are represented here.

The works of many famous artists from countries that were the leaders in the development of Western art, namely Italy, France, The Netherlands, Spain and Germany are represented here together with those from countries which formed their own identity through national schools, namely Austria, USA, Eastern European and the Baltic countries. Some examples of which are: “Concerto” a painting by the artist F. Rustici (school of Caravaggio); “Diogenes with a Lantern” the work of the 17^th century Spanish realist J. de Ribera; “The Crucifix” the painting of the Flemish baroque master P. P. Rubens, (which is the only example of his work in the Baltic states); work by the Swiss symbolist A. Böcklin; “Lady With a Mask” by the Sezession movement leader L. Corinth; sculptures by A. Rodin and B. Thorvaldsen.

The museum also proudly houses a generous Italian and Dutch art collection from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. A collection of Belgian art from the first half of the 20^th century was donated to the museum in 1936 by the artists participating in the Belgian exhibition in Kaunas and is exhibited here.