The international exhibition Dialogues of Colour and Sound. Works by Čiurlionis and His Contemporaries

 

At the National Gallery of Art, Vilnius

19 June – 23 August, 2009

 

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. Sonata oh the Pyramids. Scherzo. 1909. M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. Sonata oh the Pyramids. Allegro. 1909. M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum

The international exhibition Dialogues of Colour and Sound. Works by Čiurlionis and His Contemporaries presents the idea of finding community between art and music that was stirring the artistic minds in Europe at the early 20th century – the so-called Silver age. The exhibition displays creative ideas and spiritual relations that linked Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875–1911), the great Lithuanian artist, with his contemporaries in West and Central Europe.

 

Diverse and long-term relations have existed between music and painting. The exhibition shows the artworks covering the period when the development of various modernist currents in Europe was the most active. Starting with the solutions of painting and music synthesis in the 19th century, the increasing and spreading diversity of European art was based not on the principle of a powerful centre and its peripheries, but rather on that of numerous sparkling art centres: from Paris to Saint Petersburg, or from Oslo to Vienna. The idea of alliance between various arts united artists in different countries and offered a huge variety of solutions. Therefore, today we may name it as a meaningful and constructive dialogue between European artists. 

 

It is anticipated that the exhibition will showcase artworks by  Wassily Kandinsky, Max Klinger, Pēteris Krastiņš, František Kupka, Edvard Munch, Ferdynand Ruszczyc, Stanisław Wyspiański and other renowned Czech, Dutch, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and Scandinavian artists. Various forms of the affinity of painting and music will be explored, e.g. artists’ attempts to capture sounds of nature and cosmos, hum of the cities, painted musical visions and mirages. The exposition will include works of visual arts as well as documents – letters, sketches, music notes, photographs – and music works by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, his contemporaries Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg and others.

 

Exhibition organizers:

National Gallery of Art, Vilnius

M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, Kaunas.

 

Exhibition curators: Dr. Rasa Andriušytė-Žukienė, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Osvaldas Daugelis, M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, Kaunas, Dr. Vojtech Lahoda, Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, composer Šarūnas Nakas.

 

Photographs by D. Mukienė and I. Endrijaitienė