Virtual Exhibitions

Algirdas Žukauskas’ photographs of Soviet Kaunas: from streets of the old town to industrial areas

Photographs by Algirdas Žukauskas comprise the largest one author’s collection housed at the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art. Black and white, colour images, negatives, slides and other exhibits (more than 52,000 pieces) were taken in between the 1960s and the 1980s. In 2003, a short time before his death, the author donated all his photographic legacy to the museum.

A. Žukauskas was born on 20 May 1925 in Kaunas and lived in this city throughout all his life. He never studied photography but devoted his entire activity to this kind of art. In order to be officially engaged in photography, like other photographers of the Soviet-era, he had to be employed in a state institution or become a member of an official organization. A. Žukauskas joined the Lithuanian Union of Art Photographers and worked at several public organizations. One of his workplaces was a photo studio “Pažanga” (Progress) in Laisvės avenue, not far from the St. Michael the Archangel’s (or the Garrison) Church. Apart from taking portrait or group photographs, his main duty was that of a press-photographer in the editorial office of the Association of Household Service enterprises “Aušra” (Daybreak). This was a rather active occupation, he had to submit a large number of photographs to be selected for weekly publications.

The museum’s collection consists mainly of photographs and negatives taken for the newspaper “Už gražią buitį” (For the Beautiful Household): factories, enterprises, employers and employees, advanced workers or winners of socialist competitions. There are also numerous photographs featuring stores, restaurants, cafes, offices including their personnel, buyers or customers. One more group of photographic images presents various city or factory events, fairs, competitions, sports festivals, Soviet feast parades, arrivals of delegations, meetings, etc.

This virtual exhibition reflects the city of Kaunas of the Soviet period – public or administrative buildings under construction or newly built, new apartment districts. The city’s daily life will surely draw attention: images of the old town of Kaunas, new areas, streets, squares, characteristic buildings, signboards of various institutions, shop-windows, billboards, monuments, sculptures, bas-reliefs, green areas of the town, street illumination, fountains, and, of course, passers-by, their clothing, public and private transport, and a great many of more or less noticeable signs of the time.

Prepared by Aidas Kulbokas

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Ancient art

In the exhibition of the art of the ancient world, you will be familiarised with the invaluable part of the museum treasury – the antiquities of Mesopotamia, Babylon, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome civilizations.
The major part of the exhibits consists of the cultural monuments of the Ancient Egypt dated from the 13th century to the 1st century BC. They were collected by collector Aleksandras Račkus, egyptologist Marija Rudzinskaitė-Arcimavičienė, collector and archaeologist Mykolas Tiškevičius. This collection has been enriched by the gifts from the State Hermitage (Saint-Petersburg), State Eastern Art Museums (Moscow) and collector Viktoras Oranskis. The museum stores the biggest and the most various collection of the antique art in Lithuania. Nearly half of its exhibits were passed to the museum by the famous collector Aleksandras Račkus. The collection of pottery was significantly enriched by Professor of Vilnius University, the Art Historian Marian Morelowski. Several vessels entered the museum’s collection from the manor of Plungė Dukes Ogiński.
The exhibits are selected from the Mykolas Žilinskas Art Gallery – one of the subdivisions of the Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis National Museum of Art. This Kaunas gallery meant for the collections of foreign art was opened in 1989 and named after Žilinskas to honour the famous Lithuanian collector, patron, the former Chancellor of the Ministers’ Cabinet and an exceptionally clever businessman. In 1940, when the Soviets occupied Lithuania, he was forced to emigrate to the West. Mykolas Žilinskas donated to his home town Kaunas 1,685 works of the 16th-20th centuries’ European art from his collection accumulated in West Berlin.
The gallery offers the display of the most valuable paintings from Žilinskas’ collection as well as art treasures of the Far East, Ancient Egypt, the ancient world and Europe accumulated in the museum since 1921. They are mostly the acquisitions from the collections of the Lithuanian noblemen, from the exhibitions from abroad or works of art accumulated by ardent travellers and collectors.

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Antanas Tamošaitis (1906–2005). Drawings of Painterly Decorated Dowry Furniture

The archives of the Folk Art Department of M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art contain drawings of chests, wardrobes and sideboards by the artist Antanas Tamošaitis. A part of them – drawings of the painterly decorated dowry furniture – is presented in this virtual exhibition dedicated to the artist’s 115th birth anniversary and the year of archives.

A. Tamošaitis was born in Barzdai village, the former Šakiai county. In 1923 he started studying at Kaunas Art School and graduated with a degree in graphics in 1929. He was a teacher at this school for several years. Since 1926, A. Tamošaitis participated in expeditions during which he collected articles of folk art, captured them in photographs and drawings. In 1934, the artist travelled along the then counties of Marijampolė, Šakiai and Vilkaviškis and depicted samples of furniture on small-format watercolour sheets in gouache technique.

The drawings of chests make up the largest group of the displayed images. The plane surfaces are arranged schematically on a sheet of paper. The compositions differ in that they show either the basic plane of a piece of furniture or two planes, or even three. The areas of a cover, front and back planes are painted in one colour, usually dark red. The front surface is divided into rectangles or squares which acquire differently coloured ornaments of nature motifs. The most common of them are white, black and muted beetroot, yellow, blue and green. Such compositions are dominated by sketchy trees of life, consisting of lines, dots, and plant motifs.

The drawing of a cover corresponds to the main plane of a chest and is divided into two or one square decorated with a plant ornament, while the back plane has as a rule linear ornaments.

There are only a few drawings of sideboards. The drawings of each front surface is composed in the centre of a separate sheet of paper. The background of the plane is painted in tints of red or brown and has quite an accurate plant motif. The surfaces of door planes are marked out with a black contour line. The details of the locks, hinges and handles are painted dark, their drawing is planar and generalized.

On every drawing there are the author’s artistic marks inscribed symmetrically – the capital letters “A T” and the year of the expedition – “1934”. Actually, they are like graphic ex-libris drawn in thin lines and a combination of black and beetroot colour.

A. Tamošaitis’ drawings created in the ethnographic region of Suvalkija are a valuable part of the author’s legacy and testify to the location of the furniture characteristic of certain region and the tradition of their decoration.

Prepared by Monika Gineikienė

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Applied Arts of XVII–XX Centuries

Vrtual exhibition of applied arts presents the exhibits from the collections of the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art. Until the 2nd half of the 19th century especially artistic ware used to be produced for the manors of aristocrats and the great monarchs of the European countries only. The demands of the middle class were met by the craftsmen. Here you will get acquainted with the history of porcelain production, its development in Europe, the ware of the famous porcelain manufactories of Meissen, Sèvres, Russia and other countries, with various styles of art, ware of glass and metal, furniture and other pieces of art.

Exhibits of this exhibition are being presented at the Mykolas Žilinskas Art Gallery – one of the subdivisions of the Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis National Museum of Art. This Kaunas gallery meant for the collections of foreign art was opened in 1989 and named after Žilinskas to honour the famous Lithuanian collector, patron, the former Chancellor of the Ministers’ Cabinet and an exceptionally clever businessman. In 1940, when the Soviets occupied Lithuania, he was forced to emigrate to the West. Mykolas Žilinskas donated to his home town Kaunas 1,685 works of the 16th-20th centuries’ European art from his collection accumulated in West Berlin.

The gallery offers the display of the most valuable paintings from Žilinskas’ collection as well as art treasures of the Far East, Ancient Egypt, the ancient world and Europe accumulated in the museum since 1921. They are mostly the acquisitions from the collections of the Lithuanian noblemen, from the exhibitions from abroad or works of art accumulated by ardent travellers and collectors.

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Colored deities of Genovaitė Jacėnaitė

The Lithuanian Museum of Ethnocosmology holds the Baltic deities – ceramic sculptures donated by the artist Genovaitė Jacėnaitė (1933-2016).

Genovaitė Jacėnaitė was born in Kuršėnai, where she graduated from high school. Although tempted by mathematics, she chose art for her studies; later on she said that this choice was the best in her life. In 1957, G. Jacėnaitė graduated from the Art Institute of Lithuanian (LDI) and worked there (later - Vilnius Academy of Arts) as a lecturer until 1999. Moreover, she was a methodologist of the Art Teachers Retraining Department of the Teachers' Professional Development Center since 1994.

The ceramist was interested in people's characters and motions, so she drew ceramic sculptures and chose them as an object of creation rather than ceramic household items - dishes, vases, dinnerware sets - that were so popular at that time. She engaged in creative activities daily in her spare time and on weekends. In 1957, the ceramist started participating in national exhibitions of applied art and organized 33 personal exhibitions, her artworks are held by Mažeikiai Museum, Lithuanian National Museum of Art and M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum.

The range of the artist's creation is very wide - from the depiction of domestic life scenes to delving into the old Lithuanian culture and its worldview.

At the end of the 20th century, when G. Jacėnaitė became interested in the Baltic mythological world, "idols" appeared in her creation. The ceramicist adapted the images of Christian gods to the Baltic deities, who patronized certain areas of human life and nature.

This exhibition presents colored figurines of ceramic deities.

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Čiurlionis and Photography

In the summer of 1905 Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis made his unique photography album "Anapa". The photos were made at the foot of the Caucasus mountains, in the northern Black Sea coast, in Anapa, where Čiurlionis visited with his patrons the Wolman family. During this trip to the Caucasus and the Crimea, M. K. Čiurlionis created various photos, later the artist cropped and glued them to a small album and left inscription "Anapa.1905." on its canvas cover.
Album consists of 48 photographs: 39 were taken by M. K. Čiurlionis himself. The artist captured images of the Black Sea coast, sailing boats, the local people and their everyday life, cemeteries, and other objects. In the album we can find not only pictures taken by Čiurlionis were he captured beautiful nature, people he met along the journey, furthermore, his fellow-travelers made some photographs of Čiurlionis during journey through Caucasus as well.
Photos taken by Čiurlionis allow viewers to see everything through the artist's eyes, the images and the environment which inspired the artist’s creativity. Later the parallels of impressions of two marine landscapes - Baltic and Black sea and interpretations revived in his paintings and literary works.
In the last decade, photos of the album "Anapa" received special attention in the context of M. K. Čiurlionis’ creation. For a long time the photos were kept in the Čiurlionis‘ family archive and only from 2000 they (photocopies of original) are publically displayed in the permanent exhibition at National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum in Kaunas, but also in retrospectives and other exhibitions dedicated to the artist abroad.

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Foreign Fine Art in XVI-XVIII Centuries

This virtual exhibition is based on the exposition "Treasury of the Fine Arts of the XVI–XVIII Centuries" from the Mykolas Žilinskas Art Gallery – one of the subdivisions of the Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis National Museum of Art. Here one can get acquainted with the pieces of fine art of Italian, French, Flemish and Dutch painters. Most of them were brought to the museum from the old art collections, which had decorated the manors of Dukes of the Oginskì family, Counts of the Tyszkiewicz family, Barons von der Ropp and other famous Lithuanian families. They are tellingly complemented by the pieces of art donated by collector and art patron Mykolas Žilinskas.

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History of the Lithuanian State in Artworks

M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art Museum owns art collections of particular value, with hundreds of exhibits evidencing history of the Lithuanian State and presenting personalities what lay or strengthen the foundation of its nationhood. This is the main theme of virtual exhibition "History of the Lithuanian State in Artworks", featuring 50 selected images of Museum's artworks.

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Inspired by Muses: Scenography Art by Adomas Galdikas (1893–1969)

A famous Lithuanian artist Adomas Galdikas is well known as a brilliant painter whose works had absorbed different influences of the 20th-century art. This time we present him as a talented scenographer in the most captivating performances.

Sketches of costumes and decorations were accessed in the collections of the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art thanks to the actor Laimonas Noreika who found several boxes with the artist’s drawings in the attic of Kaunas Musical Theatre. The historical and artistic value of these drawings is beyond doubt. To date, the collection of the Fine Arts Department holds over 142 sketches for various performances.

A. Galdikas started creating scenographies at the State Theatre in Kaunas during the interwar period. His talent in expressionist painting was noticed by another very important cultural figure of that time – a stage manager and pedagogue Andrius Oleka-Žilinskas who was appointed a new leader of the Kaunas State Theatre by the then director Jurgis Savickis. A. Galdikas was one of the first artists to make decorations for a total of 17 performances staged in Kaunas.

In 1929, A. Oleka-Žilinskas, A. Galdikas and the composer Juozas Gruodis made their theatrical debut in “Šarūnas” by V. Krėve-Mickevičius. A profound idea of the hero’s self-sacrifice impressed the authors of the performance. The artist created a mysterious, romantic scenery. While recovering old and distant days, he had refused the ethnographic precision, allowing the forms to become transformed into stylised, condensed units, the scenery – framed by massive, broken columns imitating wood. The costumes of the nobility were made of double material, they were heavy, physically inflexible, presenting a clumsy and slow role. The costumes of Šarūnas’s army, on the contrary, retained graceful forms, were made of thin, light material which allowed to represent a young generation agile and lively. Stylistically, the costumes were rendered under the influence of folk art, remained free from stereotyped clichés.

“Sabbatai Zevi” (The Fallen Messiah) is another famous theatrical work by A. Oleka-Žilinskas and A. Galdikas staged after a pseudo-romantic play by the Polish playwright Jerzy Żuławski about the self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi who lived in the 17th century in Smyrna. A. Galdikas created a rather conditional, constructive, extremely theatrical stage design, had studied well the details of oriental costumes, and contributed to the creation of the make-up. The Jewish costumes were made uniform so as to create a vision oof a homogeneous crowd immersed in suffering. The Sultan’s palace distinguished itself through its luxurious oriental-style architecture, minarets and palm silhouettes, the costumes were adorned with precious stones and gold. The artist composed the scenery without a behind-the-scene portal and a back wall, allowing the action take place within the stage space.

A. Galdikas also created spectacular costumes for William Shakespeare’s comedy “Midsummer Night’s Dream” staged by A. Oleka-Žilinskas. The performance was due to appear in the autumn of 1932, but it is not known why this theatrical idea was not realised. The costumes constitute the most beautiful examples of Art Deco style.

Theatre is a synthetic art that combines different art forms: art, music, dance, literature and performing. Being engaged in creative theatrical activities, A. Galdikas deepened his knowledge in various artistic fields. He collaborated with such talented stage managers as A. Oleka-Žilinskas, B. Dauguvietis, K. Glinskis, composers Juozas Gruodis and Jurgis Karnavičius, was interested in different plays and their authors. A. Galdikas’ scenographic works were influenced by folk art, constructivism, expressionism and art deco style which altogether had made his work stylistically varied.

Prepared by Rūta Valiukaitė

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JUOZAS DAMIJONAITIS, AN EDUCATOR AND THE AUTHOR OF POPULAR “The ABC PRIMER”

J. Damijonaitis belongs to the generation of Lithuanian teachers and intellectuals who, during the oppression of tsarist Russia, were the first pioneers in the field of the establishment of the national school, fought for the right to teach children in their mother tongue. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his birth, it is worth remembering the merits of this prominent personality to Lithuanian education and culture.

However, the textbooks for primary schools, published by J. Damijonaitis, had the greatest significance for the Lithuanian school and pedagogical development of thought. After 1905 J. Damijonaitis prepared textbooks of all main subjects for primary school such as “The ABC Primer” (1906), the cover of which was illustrated by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, “A Short Grammar of the Lithuanian Language” (1909, five editions) and “Arithmetic Textbook” (2 parts, 1909 and 1910). Later he wrote and published “A Book of Problems in Arithmetic” (3 parts, 1922–1923, twelve editions) and readings “Kindergarten” (1922).

J. Damijonaitis' "The ABC Primer" was the first elementary element for school based on a writing-reading method. It had three sections: pre-alphabetical, alphabetical, and reading. This was not the case in others, previously released, elementary textbooks. Compiling elementary readings, the author strived to give a child as much knowledge as possible about the native land. The primer was full of articles on nature, geography, history, Lithuanian literature and folklore. In addition to reading, J. Damijonaitis presented various grammatical and logical exercises. Such methodology of compiling a textbook shows the author was interested in and followed the teaching methodology of primary reading of a well-known Russian pedagogue Konstantinas Ušinskis and applied it to the Lithuanian school in a clever and creative way. The textbook of Lithuanian grammar, published by J. Damijonaitis, was important because it spread the science and terminology of Lithuanian grammar compiled by Jonas Jablonskis and developed the methodology of teaching grammar. All grammar and arithmetic textbooks and readings written by J. Damijonaitis were very popular and widely used in interwar Lithuanian schools after the author's death (1926). Textbooks were constantly re-edited, corrected and new editions were released. The last edition of Lithuanian grammar was published in 1939.

J. Damijonaitis and J. Jablonskis were close friends. Both were dedicated to science, Lithuanianism and the Lithuanian language. Thus, the fate determined that even after the death of both Lithuanian enlightened people, they were buried side by side in Petrašiūnai cemetery in Kaunas.

The documents kept in the museum also testify to their friendship, one of the most valuable of which is a letter from J. Jablonskis to J. Damijonaitis. In the letter, the author asked J. Damijonaitis to help find his acquaintance Zofija Jucevičaitė-Nečajevienė a job as a teacher in any Polish or Russian school. "She urgently needs work (and food)", wrore J. Jablonskis. In the letter J. Jablonskis also mentioned that it would be good to organize Lithuanian language courses for those teachers who returned from Russia.

The life and works of J. Damijonaitis testify to his great dedication to his field of activity, and especially to the great respect and attention to the Lithuanian language. J. Damijonaitis took care that Lithuanian textbooks reached the children of Lithuanians living in the USA. In 1921 in Chicago Lithuanian publishing company “Friend” published J. Damijonaitis' "Short Grammar of the Lithuanian Language" (reprinted in 1914).

J. Damijonaitis' life was not long, but it was very meaningful. Through his pedagogical activity, he earned great respect and authority not only as an inspector of Kaunas primary schools, an author of textbooks for schools, a public figure, but also as an active nurturer of the native Lithuanian language. It is not a coincidence that in Kaunas, Aleksotas, one of the streets where he lived was named after him. It is J. Damijonaičio Street.

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Juozas Zikaras (1881-1944) – the Master of Litas Coins

The litas as the currency of Lithuania was introduced in circulation on 1 October 1922, initially, temporary cents and banknotes, and from November to December the same year they were replaced by regular currency – 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 denomination cent coins and LTL 1, 2, 5 denomination banknotes. Soon it appeared that paper money wore out very quickly. This did not satisfy both the population and the Bank of Lithuania. The need for metal litas was obvious. The Ministry of Finance, Trade and Industry initiated a competition for the creation of metal coins of all denominations that would reflect the spirit of national art. Sculptor Juozas Zikaras did not participate in the competition, instead, he encouraged his students to create the design of coins.

In 1922, the press announcements claimed that only several projects had been approved, besides, the commission purchased several more drawings, however, the results of the competition did not meet the expectations of the Ministry of Finance, Trade and Industry, so it was decided to appeal to well-known sculptors for the models of coins. In December 1923, the sculptor Juozas Zikaras (1881–1944) was commissioned to create 11 models for 11 thousand Litas until 1 March 1924.

Photos of all models by J. Zikaras were published in the daily “Rytas” (The Morning) and in the newspaper “Ūkininkas” (Farmer). Coins of 1, 5 denomination cents [Nn 11064, Nn 11065], 10, 20, 50 denomination cents [Nn 11066, Nn 11067, Nn 11068] and LTL 1 denomination coin [Nn 11069] after J. Zikaras’ models were released. A unanimous symbol was depicted on the obverse of all coins – Vytis (the Knight) [Nn 11072] the coat of arms of the Republic of Lithuania. The reverse of coins featured the denomination and plant motifs: a flax flower (1 and 5 cent coins) [Nn 11088], rye shocks (LTL 5 coin) [Nn 11091], and a spinning woman (LTL 10 coin) [Nn 11092].

After the adoption of the Coin Law on 20 June 1924, the first Lithuanian coins were struck in 1925 in Great Britain: in London – silver coins, in Birmingham – the bronze ones. In 1925, J. Zikaras created new reverse models for LTL 2 and 5 denomination coins [Nn 11070], [Nn 11071].

In 1935, as coins of small denomination began to run out of circulation, negotiations were started on the establishment of own mint in Lithuania. A small but modern mint was set up in Kaunas, in the premises of the “Spindulys” printing house on Miško st. 11. The second Coin Law was adopted on 3 June 1936. Around that time, Kaunas Mint started operating – 1, 2 [Nn 11075], 5 denomination cent [Nn 11077] bronze coins and LTL 1, 5, 10 [Nn 11082] silver coins were minted. In 1938, in honour of the 20th anniversary of independent Lithuania J. Zikaras created models of commemorative coins, but only a LTL 10 litas silver coin with the image of President A. Smetona was released [Nn 11083]. A coin of LTL 2 [Nn 11089] denomination was also prepared to be minted in Kaunas, but without the approval of the obverse (the image of Vytis [Nn 11106] and Gediminas poles) by the Minister of Finance, it was not issued.

Prepared by Ignas Narbutas, curator of the numismatics collection at M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art

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Kaunas City Heritage Monuments in the Soviet Era: photographs by a local lore ethnographer Aleksandr

To commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of ethnographer and photographer Aleksandras Pleskačiauskas we present a virtual exhibition of his photographs.

A. Pleskačiauskas was born on 6 June 1921 in Vilnius but less than a year later his parents moved to Kaunas with the then little Aleksandras. Deportations to Siberia in the post-war years affected the family of the future ethnographer and photographer, yet, Kaunas became an integral part of A. Pleskačiauskas’ life and hobbies. After returning from exile, he chose to live here and related his whole life’s occupation to construction and building organization. However, after A. Pleskačiauskas retired in 1981, he discovered an absorbing passion – photography. The man’s biography drawn up by Kaunas County Public Library tells that out of his great love for Kaunas, A. Pleskačiauskas devoted much of his time photographing its historical, decaying buildings, modern architecture, also loved to travel around Lithuania and take photographs of churches in various towns, collected different material about the Kaunas history in libraries, conducted tours, made reports. The passion for books that had developed in his youth accompanied the ethnographer throughout his life: he read literature in Lithuanian, Russian and Polish, had a plentiful library, was interested in history, arts, philosophy, culture, classical fiction. |Differently from other professional or amateur photographers who took photos of Lithuanian cities and buildings during the Soviet era A. Pleskačiauskas is known to have archived the photographs very carefully by making descriptions of them. In many cases he used to render extremely detailed accounts, delving into the historical facts of the city, streets, buildings. A. Pleskačiauskas gummed the photos on to thicker sheets of paper or in albums and wrote down the characteristics of the captured objects next to the photo in his excellent calligraphic handwriting. Thus, the ethnographer and photographer had accumulated a considerable archive of both single photographs and thematic albums with photographs.

A. Pleskačiauskas was 67 when he died, nevertheless, he had accumulated a large archive of images of the Soviet-era Kaunas and various other parts of Lithuania. Part of the collection of his photographs and albums is stored in Kaunas County Public Library. M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art preserves 300 photographs, pasted on thick paper, with handwritten entries. In this virtual exhibition you will get acquainted with a part of the museum’s collection – images and architectural monuments of the Soviet era Kaunas, a city that was very much important to A. Pleskačiauskas.

Prepared by Aidas Kulbokas

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