Exhibition "The Dawn. Lithuanian Art until 1918", 10 May 2018 – 31 May 2019
Exhibition "The Dawn. Lithuanian Art until 1918", 10 May 2018 – 31 May 2019 at the M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum, Kaunas.
The pre-dawn is the time when it is felt that in a few moments everything that is alive will wake up with the new strength and strength of the day. The terms Dawn, Around Dawn, and Pre-dawn have become synonymous with the rebirth of the Nation.
The exhibition "Predawn. Lithuanian Art until 1918" originated from the desire to present to the public the significant works of Lithuanian culture at the end of the nineteenth century. – to combine art criticism and historical material, creating an atmosphere of a changing era in the museum's exhibition halls. The exhibition also features works of art from the Lithuanian Art Museum, the Bank of Lithuania and private collections.
The cultural movement of the twentieth century was an important impetus for the formation of the statehood of Lithuania. In the cultural environment, hopes for national identity and national independence matured. The beginning of national consciousness, the realization that without moral values, the nation is on the path of extinction. New goals, challenges, ambitions appeared – to speak, read, sing, write in Lithuanian.
The first exhibition of Lithuanian art is one of the most sensitive exhibitions of the twentieth century. The beginning of Lithuanian art events, which emerged on the initiative of young artists. It was an event of that period, supported by the intelligentsia and implemented by a nucleus of several like-minded people – Petras Rimša, Antanas Žmuidzinavičius, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Marija Putvinskaitė, Sofija Gimbutaitė, Ona Pleirytė-Puidienė. The Lithuanian Art Society changed the history of Lithuanian art and became the foundation of today's contemporary art.
The Society gathered the enlightenment for joint work, publications were published, competitions were organized, creators' assistance was carried out, funds were collected and dreamed of a modern house of the Lithuanian Nation with a museum and concert space. Artists sent their works from various European countries to exhibitions. Professional art was exhibited together with works of folk art. It was at this time that the perception and desire to be proud of rural crafts appeared. The first exhibitions were an opportunity to get to know and promote folk music not only in the territory of Lithuania. Exhibition life awakened the public, and a new genre of analytical impressionist criticism emerged in the press of that time.
A hundred years later, it is important to test Nobel Prize winner Czesław Miloš's thoughts on a Europe made up of "small homelands", when we need to support ourselves, when we need to learn from the nation's past, draw strength from it, and strive for the continuity of moral values. It is important for everyone to ask themselves: was it relevant only then, a hundred years ago, or is it still relevant today? What were the thoughts of young people in the twentieth century when studying in art schools, academies, and universities in St. Petersburg, Krakow, Warsaw, Munich, Paris? Having entered the cauldron of world cultures from a poor land, admiring progress, how did they resist, how did they manage to unite, unite, support each other and, living in semi-starvation, think about their homeland and work for it?