Exhibition "Landscape Change: From Žmuidzinavičius until Today" at the Lithuanian Artists' Union Gallery "Project Space"
On June 1–15, 2026, during the Vilnius Art Festival, the Lithuanian Artists' Union Gallery "Project Space" will host a painting exhibition "Landscape Change: From Žmuidzinavičius until Today", dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Antanas Žmuidzinavičius (1876–1966), an outstanding Lithuanian artist, educator, and chairman of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences from 1944–59. It will present a collection of landscapes by contemporary painters - a symbolic dedication to the neo-romantic tradition of Lithuanian painting. TARTLE has lent Antanas Žmuidzinavičius's work "On the Seashore" for this exhibition.
A. Žmuidzinavičius' painting "View from Birutės Mountain in Palanga" was chosen to review the landscape theme - like a small idyll of his own land, in which imaginary coordinates of space and time are concentrated, a generalizing atmosphere is obtained, and a calm and serene feeling of nature is created. This plein air painting, from the open sunset to the forest and the distance that envelops the coastal valley, is at the same time an unexpected result of the landscape motif, as the discovery of one’s own intimate topography. This is a moment when, in the mist created by cool tones, the orange of the pine trunks seems to glow of its own accord, their silhouettes come to life, and the tangle of the “hands” of the branches responds to the stylized forms of the clouds. An unpredictable appearance that seduces the painter opens up, as if a timeless image is being created above the phenomenal reflectors of nature.
The desire to highlight the importance of the contemplation of the visual landscape also prompted the gathering of contemporary painters in this exhibition. In their work, the landscape is not a random object, but rather the main expression of painterly thinking, often an intuitive expression. The works of artists of different styles allow us to recognize the development of a landscape image before it has turned into a thematized material or reduced abstraction, remaining a stimulus for themselves and creating an unpredictable relationship with the viewer.
The exhibition aims to contribute to the phenomenon that has been fostered in Lithuanian artistic life in recent years – to look back to the origins of modernist art of the early 20th century, to establish a new relationship with the colorful personalities of the creators of that time, and to interpret their works. The most important thing is that this field of interpretations remains free from established, historically fabricated meanings, enabling us to perceive artistic dedication as a more complex, metaphorical, and individual movement of artistic thinking.
Curator: Agnė Kulbytė
Participating artists: Dovydas Alčiauskis, Algimantas Biguzas, Henrikas Čerapas, Rūta Eidukaitytė, Mykolė Ganusauskaitė, Darya Hancharka, Martinas Jankus, Eglė Karpavičiūtė, Viktorija Kemeklė, Aistė Kirvelytė, Krzysztof Klimek (Krokuva), Ričardas Nemeikšis, Liucija Pačkauskaitė, Lukas Pavilonis, Nestor Tyryškin, Eglė Ulčickaitė.
On June 1–15, 2026, during the Vilnius Art Festival, the Lithuanian Artists' Union Gallery "Project Space" will host a painting exhibition "Landscape Change: From Žmuidzinavičius until Today", dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Antanas Žmuidzinavičius (1876–1966), an outstanding Lithuanian artist, educator, and chairman of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences from 1944–59. It will present a collection of landscapes by contemporary painters - a symbolic dedication to the neo-romantic tradition of Lithuanian painting. TARTLE has lent Antanas Žmuidzinavičius's work "On the Seashore" for this exhibition.
A. Žmuidzinavičius' painting "View from Birutės Mountain in Palanga" was chosen to review the landscape theme - like a small idyll of his own land, in which imaginary coordinates of space and time are concentrated, a generalizing atmosphere is obtained, and a calm and serene feeling of nature is created. This plein air painting, from the open sunset to the forest and the distance that envelops the coastal valley, is at the same time an unexpected result of the landscape motif, as the discovery of one’s own intimate topography. This is a moment when, in the mist created by cool tones, the orange of the pine trunks seems to glow of its own accord, their silhouettes come to life, and the tangle of the “hands” of the branches responds to the stylized forms of the clouds. An unpredictable appearance that seduces the painter opens up, as if a timeless image is being created above the phenomenal reflectors of nature.
The desire to highlight the importance of the contemplation of the visual landscape also prompted the gathering of contemporary painters in this exhibition. In their work, the landscape is not a random object, but rather the main expression of painterly thinking, often an intuitive expression. The works of artists of different styles allow us to recognize the development of a landscape image before it has turned into a thematized material or reduced abstraction, remaining a stimulus for themselves and creating an unpredictable relationship with the viewer.
The exhibition aims to contribute to the phenomenon that has been fostered in Lithuanian artistic life in recent years – to look back to the origins of modernist art of the early 20th century, to establish a new relationship with the colorful personalities of the creators of that time, and to interpret their works. The most important thing is that this field of interpretations remains free from established, historically fabricated meanings, enabling us to perceive artistic dedication as a more complex, metaphorical, and individual movement of artistic thinking.
Curator: Agnė Kulbytė
Participating artists: Dovydas Alčiauskis, Algimantas Biguzas, Henrikas Čerapas, Rūta Eidukaitytė, Mykolė Ganusauskaitė, Darya Hancharka, Martinas Jankus, Eglė Karpavičiūtė, Viktorija Kemeklė, Aistė Kirvelytė, Krzysztof Klimek (Krokuva), Ričardas Nemeikšis, Liucija Pačkauskaitė, Lukas Pavilonis, Nestor Tyryškin, Eglė Ulčickaitė.
