M.K. Čiurlionis: Between Worlds (21 September 2022 – 12 March 2023)
This September, Dulwich Picture Gallery will present M.K. Čiurlionis: Between Worlds, the first major UK exhibition of work by the Lithuanian artist and celebrated composer. Building on its reputation for introducing lesser-known artists to UK audiences, the Gallery will bring together over 100 works by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911), widely credited as Lithuania’s greatest artist. The exhibition will feature paintings created throughout his short but prolific career, with most travelling to the UK for the first time.
Displayed chronologically, M.K. Čiurlionis: Between Worlds will reveal how Čiurlionis used structure and colour to create works that sit between mythology and reality. The exhibition will highlight the breadth of Čiurlionis’ interests, with a focus on humankind’s relationship to the universe, and examine the themes and motifs that aligned his art to European Symbolism. Bringing together Čiurlionis’ most accomplished masterpieces, including Creation of the World (1905/1906), The Zodiac (1906/1907) and Rex (1909), the exhibition will position him as a singular figure in the history of European art whose ethereal, and occasionally fantastical, works were precursors of abstract painting.
Čiurlionis left a profound imprint on Lithuanian culture and is among the country’s most loved and famous historical figures – his paintings are widely reproduced and his music is often performed. He started his career as a pianist and organist, studying music at the Institute of Music in Warsaw from 1894-1899. It was not until 1902 that he took up drawing and painting, enrolling in the Warsaw School of Fine Arts in 1904. For the following six years, painting dominated his output, although he remained an active and well-regarded composer throughout his short life. He lived with a mental health condition from an early age and died from pneumonia while recuperating from depression in a sanatorium at the age of just 35. Despite dying so young, he left a substantial body work: between 1903 and 1909, he produced around four hundred paintings and etchings, four hundred musical compositions, as well as several literary works and poems.
This exhibition will foreground Čiurlionis’ cycles: the groupings of works he created where scenes and narrative evolve over time. Highlights will include Creation of the World (1905/1906), a series of 13 paintings in which Čiurlionis manifests his own visions of the creation story, and Winter (1907), a cycle of eight paintings, which illustrates his move towards abstraction.
At the heart of the exhibition will be three of the seven ‘Sonata’ cycles that Čiurlionis painted, including the three-part Sonata of the Sea (1908). Named Andante, Allegro and Finale, titles in this cycle mirror the distinct parts of a musical sonata, aligned with the corresponding movements of the sea. Through these works, Čiurlionis reveals his unique approach to uniting the principles of music and painting.
Rex (1909), one of Čiurlionis’ late and best-known artworks, will appear towards the end of the exhibition. Here Čiurlionis presents his vision of our complex and intertwined relationship with the earthly and the celestial. The largest work in the exhibition, it combines many of the elements that Čiurlionis returned to in his work: mythology, folklore and mysticism.
Čiurlionis’ musical compositions will be presented in Dulwich Picture Gallery’s Mausoleum, an immersive aural experience that will introduce visitors to Čiurlionis’ first art form, enriching our understanding of his creative world.
All works will be on loan from the M.K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art in Kaunas, Lithuania, where the majority of Čiurlionis’ artworks are housed.
The exhibition is curated by Kathleen Soriano, independent curator and broadcaster. Soriano said:
“In 1866, the writer Emile Zola defined a work of art as ‘a corner of creation seen through a temperament’, and via Čiurlionis’ aesthetic and sensitive yet powerful work, we see glimpses of the man whose intense and passionate creativity was cruelly cut short at the age of 35. In this exhibition Čiurlionis invites us all to travel with him between worlds – from the celestial to the earthly, the physical to the spiritual, from music to painting, the fantastical to the real, and from the figurative to the abstract.”
Jennifer Scott, The Sackler Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery, said:
“We are proud to be presenting the first major UK exhibition of works by M.K. Čiurlionis. This builds on our track record at Dulwich Picture Gallery of broadening the artistic canon and bringing compelling and influential artists to new audiences. Čiurlionis is a household name in Lithuania; this exhibition will reveal why.”
Daina Kamarauskienė, Director of M.K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, said:
“For many years, Čiurlionis’ works were only accessible to people of the Soviet Union. Lithuania’s Declaration of Independence in 1990 allowed more and more countries to discover his work, resuming Čiurlionis’ rightful place in European art history. We are proud to present this comprehensive exhibition of his work to the British public at Dulwich Picture Gallery.”
Notes to editors
Contact
Caitlin Collinson, PR Manager
c.collinson@dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk
Listings Info
M.K. Čiurlionis: Between Worlds
21 September 2022 – 12 March 2023
Images
Publicity images can be downloaded from the Gallery’s website at: dpg.art/presspics
Image credit: M.K. Čiurlionis, Creation of the World. III from the cycle of 13 paintings, 1905/1906. Courtesy M.K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Kaunas
