Lithuanian Art Museum
The Lithuanian Art Museum ( Lithuanian Lietuvos dailės muziejus ) was originally founded in 1933 as the Vilnius City Museum . Today it houses the largest Lithuanian art collection with over 40,000 paintings and drawings and manages various museum branches.
history
The origins of the art museum can be traced back to the beginning of the 20th century , when the end of the ban on Lithuanian writing in the Russian Empire was followed by a wave of renewed interest in art and culture. Numerous art exhibitions of this time left their works to the Lithuanian Art Society, which then developed plans for a permanent establishment. This project was disrupted by the First World War .
In the interwar years, the plans were tackled again. In 1933 the Vilnius Magistrate, which at that time was subordinate to the Polish government, decided to establish a city museum. Works of art were collected and stored in various buildings in the city, but were not accessible to the public for the time being. The first exhibitions only took place in April 1941 ; the museum was then and until 1966 the Vilnius State Art Museum .
In January 1997 the Lithuanian government granted the museum its current status as a national museum; it is now subordinate to the Ministry of Culture.
Branches
The museum includes the National Art Gallery, the Picture Gallery, the Museum of Applied Arts in the Old Arsenal of the Lower Castle and the Radziwiłł Palace (all in Vilnius), the Amber Museum in Palanga , the Pranas Domšaitis Gallery and the Clock Museum in Klaipėda and the Exhibition Hall in Juodkrantė .
Collections
The museum's exhibitions include around 2,500 paintings from the 16th to 19th centuries, these mainly consist of images of nobles and clergy from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and religious works from Lithuanian churches and monasteries. In addition, 8,000 drawings by Italian, German, French, Flemish-Dutch, Polish, English and Japanese artists from the 15th to 20th centuries are shown. The first half of the 20th century is represented with over 12,000 works, the second half with over 21,000 works.
The sculpture collection contains works from various European countries. Watercolor and pastel paintings as well as photographs are also collected.
ladder
- Adolfas Valeška - 1940-1944
- Levas Karsavinas - 1944-1949
- Bronius Petrauskas - 1949-1950
- T. Filipaitis - 1950-1953
- Pranas Gudynas - 1953-1979
- Romualdas Budrys - 1979-2019
- Arūnas Gelūnas (* 1968), since 2019
Web links
- Official website (lit., engl.)
- The Lithuanian Art Museum on "Museums in Lithuania"
- History of the museum (Engl.)
- Lithuanian Art Museum at Google Cultural Institute
- Lithuanian Museum Society (Engl.)
- Website Amber Museum Palanga (Engl.)
Coordinates: 54 ° 40 ′ 51 ″ N , 25 ° 17 ′ 24 ″ E