Our website uses cookies to ensure the quality of services provided to you. If you keep browsing, you consent to TARTLE cookie and privacy policy. More information

Vilnius Forever. A Dialogue of Artworks and Guides to the City

On 25th May we are opening the fifth exhibition of the Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE, which has been prepared in cooperation with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City and is dedicated to the 700th anniversary of Vilnius.

The Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE boasts not only a rich collection of artworks on the theme of Vilnius, but also a large number of publications about Vilnius and historical guidebooks to the city. These two collections are presented in the exhibition ‘Vilnius Forever. A Dialogue of Artworks and Guides to the City’ covering the period of the second half of the 19th and the 20th century. The Vilnius theme has never lost its popularity, guidebooks went through many reprints, and views of the city were multiplied as art prints. The exhibition presents twenty-six guidebooks written by such prominent authors as Adam Honory Kirkor, Władysław Zahorski, Juljusz Kłos, Zalmen Szyk or Mikalojus Vorobjovas. The chronologically divided exhibition reflects the variety of Vilnius cultures and languages: the initial rooms showcase Polish and Russian guidebooks of the second half of the 19th century, the largest room presents Polish and German guidebooks of the early 20th century and the interwar period, and the rest of the exhibition contains guidebooks published in Yiddish and Lithuanian before the war and in the Soviet period. Along with the books, contemporaneous artworks are exhibited: guidebooks informed the readers about the city’s top attractions, and artists represented them in series of graphic art. The repertory of places of interest travelled from book to book and from work to work, thus consolidating the register of the city’s ‘eternal’ values. More than 100 prints from thirteen series dedicated to Vilnius, postcards and approximately two dozen drawings and paintings are showcased in the exhibition. Among the authors are Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Jerzy Hoppen, Adam Międzybłocki, Petras Repšys and others.

The first guidebooks of Vilnius appeared soon after their predecessors began to be published in Europe in the 1830s. Publications by the German publisher Karl Baedeker, who developed their content and structure, became widely popular to the extent that guidebooks came to be generically called ‘Baedekers’. They presented geographical, historical and cultural information, descriptions of places of interest and itineraries, gave practical information about transport and accommodation and included a map. Vilnius guidebooks were based on the same principles.

The TARTLE exhibition for the first time presents the history of Vilnius guidebooks, showcases the works by the artists Ber Zalkind and Alfred Holler, and introduces the interwar American artist Lionel Reiss, whose Vilnius-related works have been lent to the exhibition by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. Several exhibits are courtesy of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Tanya Rubinstein-Horowitz and Laima Laučkaitė.

Curator – Laima Laučkaitė

Architects – Jurgis Dagelis and Justinas Dūdėnas

Graphic designer – Juozapas Švelnys

Project is financed by Lithuanian Council for Culture

 

On 25th May we are opening the fifth exhibition of the Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE, which has been prepared in cooperation with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City and is dedicated to the 700th anniversary of Vilnius.

The Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE boasts not only a rich collection of artworks on the theme of Vilnius, but also a large number of publications about Vilnius and historical guidebooks to the city. These two collections are presented in the exhibition ‘Vilnius Forever. A Dialogue of Artworks and Guides to the City’ covering the period of the second half of the 19th and the 20th century. The Vilnius theme has never lost its popularity, guidebooks went through many reprints, and views of the city were multiplied as art prints. The exhibition presents twenty-six guidebooks written by such prominent authors as Adam Honory Kirkor, Władysław Zahorski, Juljusz Kłos, Zalmen Szyk or Mikalojus Vorobjovas. The chronologically divided exhibition reflects the variety of Vilnius cultures and languages: the initial rooms showcase Polish and Russian guidebooks of the second half of the 19th century, the largest room presents Polish and German guidebooks of the early 20th century and the interwar period, and the rest of the exhibition contains guidebooks published in Yiddish and Lithuanian before the war and in the Soviet period. Along with the books, contemporaneous artworks are exhibited: guidebooks informed the readers about the city’s top attractions, and artists represented them in series of graphic art. The repertory of places of interest travelled from book to book and from work to work, thus consolidating the register of the city’s ‘eternal’ values. More than 100 prints from thirteen series dedicated to Vilnius, postcards and approximately two dozen drawings and paintings are showcased in the exhibition. Among the authors are Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Jerzy Hoppen, Adam Międzybłocki, Petras Repšys and others.

The first guidebooks of Vilnius appeared soon after their predecessors began to be published in Europe in the 1830s. Publications by the German publisher Karl Baedeker, who developed their content and structure, became widely popular to the extent that guidebooks came to be generically called ‘Baedekers’. They presented geographical, historical and cultural information, descriptions of places of interest and itineraries, gave practical information about transport and accommodation and included a map. Vilnius guidebooks were based on the same principles.

The TARTLE exhibition for the first time presents the history of Vilnius guidebooks, showcases the works by the artists Ber Zalkind and Alfred Holler, and introduces the interwar American artist Lionel Reiss, whose Vilnius-related works have been lent to the exhibition by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. Several exhibits are courtesy of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Tanya Rubinstein-Horowitz and Laima Laučkaitė.

Curator – Laima Laučkaitė

Architects – Jurgis Dagelis and Justinas Dūdėnas

Graphic designer – Juozapas Švelnys

Project is financed by Lithuanian Council for Culture