The Kaunas District Museum continues the work of the most famous Litvak (Jews from the LDK) artists, who are considered the most influential in the world in the 20th century. for the Paris School of Modernist Art (L’École de Paris), exhibition cycle. in 2024 Friday, April 26, 6 p.m. The second exhibition of the works of these authors is opening in Raudondvaris Castle. This time, the exhibition presents to the Lithuanian public the sculptures and graphic works of the famous Lithuanian-born French sculptor Jacques Lipchitz (1891–1973), who became famous for his cubist works, as well as other Lithuanian artists, which came from the rich personal collection of the famous art collector Shmuel Tatz (New York).
From Lithuania to Paris
A large part of the artists presented in this exhibition were born in Lithuania: Jachues Lipchitzas – Druskininkai, Neemija Arbit Blatas and Samuelis Rozins – Kaunas, Lasaris Segalls – Vilnius, Boris Lovet-Lorski – Kaunas district. Only a few other authors of the exhibition were born in other historical lands of the GDR: Ossip Zadkine and Leon Indenbaum – in Belarus, Chana Orloff – in Ukraine. Regardless of the fact that these Litvaks were born in Lithuania, later they emigrated to France, Israel, Brazil or America and stayed there forever. Their magnificent personal stories and their work influencing the entire field of art are presented as representatives of the art of the country where they were formed, so they are positioned and presented not as Lithuanian-Jews, but as French, American or even Russian.
The majority of Litvak artists at some stage of their lives studied, lived and created in France, many of them stayed in the artists’ colony in Paris, nicknamed “The Beehive” (La Ruche). After 1789 The Jews of the Great French Revolution enjoyed civil equality and freedom in this country like nowhere else in Europe. Paris has become universally recognized as the capital par excellence of modernizing Western art, the center of diffusion of Romanticism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism, Orphism, Surrealism and many other artistic directions and styles. The famous school of Paris split into a number of new art directions, one of them being cubism. Although the artists gathered near the Seine knew each other, worked and lived together in “Avilis”, they represented different art currents and movements. As the aesthetics of Cubism took hold, two of the most significant Litvak sculptors appeared in the French capital: Osip Zadkine and J. Lipchitz, who became the central figure of our exhibition.
The Kaunas District Museum aims to broaden and deepen the knowledge of the works of the Litvaks
The curator of the exhibition, the director of the Kaunas District Museum, Zigmas Kalesinskas, points out that Mr. Lipchitz’s works are kept in the collections of the Paris Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Modern Gallery in London, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. , and now, in order to broaden and deepen the knowledge of the work of the Litvaks in Lithuania, a piece of the work of the Litvaks is shown in Raudondvaris Castle.
The exhibition “Jacques Lipchitz and other Lithuanian artists” presents the sculptures of Jacques Lipchitz, Ossip Zadkine, Neemia Arbit Blat, Chana Orloff, Naoum Lvovic Aronson, Leon Indelbaum, Boris Loret-Lorski, William Zorach. Also graphic works: a cycle of 11 lithographs created on the theme of the myth of Prometheus by J. Lipchitz, 1971. created a series of 3-piece color lithographs “The Tree of Life”, as well as Ben Shahn, Samuel Rosin’s linocuts, Lasar Segall’s woodcuts. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the sculpture and graphics of the Litvaks when you come to the Kaunas District Museum located in the Raudondvaris Castle (Pilies takas 1, Raudondvaris). The exhibition will be held until May 26.
