This exhibition presents the photographic work of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875–1911), a lesser-known but extremely significant part of his artistic legacy. Known worldwide as a painter and composer, Čiurlionis is revealed here from new, unexpected angles.

The exhibition features forty photographs taken by Čiurlionis during his stay in the Black Sea coastal city of Anapa, in the Caucasus region, and later assembled into a small handmade album, “Anapa 1905”. This is not a random collection of friends, family members or seascapes, but rather the artist’s coherent account of his stay in Anapa and the testimony of his inner journey, which became a space for spiritual transformation, which later became clearly evident in his work and became an integral part of Lithuania’s cultural revival.

After this trip, according to Čiurlionis’ sister Jadvyga, the “Lithuanian Renaissance” began at home. Later, in 1906, the artist wrote in a letter to his brother Povilas:

“What do you think about this? Do you know about the Lithuanian movement? I intend to dedicate all my past and future work to Lithuania…”

Čiurlionis’ photographs are simple, unretouched. They do not aim to create a perfect or completed image. On the contrary, they are filled with openness, inviting us to stop and experience his experiences.

Looking at these images, we see the world through Čiurlionis’ eyes. They allow us to get closer to the thinker and creator who perceived the visible world as a reflection of spiritual life. The principle of non finito, close to Čiurlionis, becomes here a natural expression of the ineffable.

During his short life, which lasted only thirty-five years, Čiurlionis created almost four hundred pieces of music, about three hundred paintings, as well as a rich legacy of illustrations, photographs, and literary texts. Almost all of this work is today preserved in the National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum in Kaunas. It testifies to a unified artistic worldview, in which sound, image, nature and the spiritual life of man merge into an indivisible whole.

Professor Vytautas Landsbergis wrote about this exhibition: “Let this exhibition of photographs speak to us about that man and his time – and at the same time about us and all times.”

The presentation of this exhibition at the Oginskis Palace has a special symbolic meaning. Count Mykolas Oginskis was Čiurlionis’s first patron and patron. It was here that the future artist began his creative path – he studied music, played the flute in the palace orchestra, sang in the choir and painted.

So symbolically today Čiurlionis returns to where his path began.

Čiurlionis is returning home. Lithuanians of the world are returning home. We are returning to a free Lithuania.

Exhibition curator Vilma Dobilaitė

Leading artist – designer Laura Blaževičienė

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The exhibition is prepared from the collections of the National M. K. Čiurlionis Museum of Art.

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EVENT INFORMATION

Date: July 23, 2026 - August 23

Venue: Samogitian Art Museum

Address: Parko g. 3A, LT-90113, Plungė

More: HERE

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ORGANIZER

Samogitian Art Museum

Freedom Prelude Arrived to Samogitia

Freedom Prelude Arrived to Samogitia

Date

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