EXHIBITION “Wonderful Letters. Correspondence of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis and Marianne Werefkin“
05 12 2023 – 04 03 2024
Opening 6 pm, December 5, 2023
Letters are a means of communication between close people who are separated by distance, so they are full of feelings, reflections, and stories. Today, handwritten letters have been replaced by SMS messages and e-mails, which have displaced the culture of material, long-lasting letters. Artists' letters with drawings, which say more than words, occupy a specific place in the history of postal correspondence. Illustrated letters become works of art, forming a distinct artistic genre. This exhibition presents illustrated letters by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis and Marianne Werefkin. They are time capsules of a kind, transporting us back to the beginning of the 20th century.
Čiurlionis wrote his warm-hearted letters to his brother Povilas from 1903 to 1904 from Warsaw, when he became interested in art and enrolled at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. Then, he wrote about assignments. He also sent his brother colorful postcards, drawn by himself, reflecting his first artistic attempts – symbolist compositions depicting an island transformed into a living being, mysterious landscapes, bells, and deities. Čiurlionis would later develop these ideas in his mature work.
Artist (1860–1938) grew up in Vilnius, Lublin, and Vyžuonėliai Manor near Utena (North West Lithuania). She studied in St. Petersburg, lived in Munich from 1896, entered the German art scene, and became one of the first Expressionist artists in the West. In 1909, when Werefkin came to Kaunas to visit her relatives, she strained a ligament in her leg and had to stay there for a long time. From Kaunas, she sent letters to her lifelong friend, the painter Alexej von Jawlensky in Munich. In her letters, she wrote him about the city, which was full of charm and eeriness, about everyday events and her well-being, and she was annoyed at the bourgeoisie of the Russian officialdom. Her letters contain compositions based on impressions of Kaunas, in the style of Expressionism: the banks of the Nemunas, the procession to the church, the appearance of a comet over the city, etc.
Čiurlionis‘ letters are kept in the National Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis Art Museum in Kaunas, and Marianne Werefkin‘s letters are kept in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library.
P. S. Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis and Marianne Werefkin were contemporaries, but they never met each other and their paths did not cross. However, they had heard of each other and knew each other‘s work from Sergey Makovsky‘s salon exhibition in St Petersburg in 1909, where they both displayed their paintings.
Exhibition team:
Curator Laima Laučkaitė
Design Akvilė Aglickaitė
Coordinator Milda Pleitaitė
Organiser: M. K. Čiurlionis House
Partners: M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania.
OPENING HOURS:
Tuesday to Friday: from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday: from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday and Sunday: CLOSED.
