La saison de la Lituanie en France 2024

Contemporary art in Lithuania from 1960 to the present 

A major donation 

In partnership with the MO Museum in Vilnius, the Centre Pompidou will be showcasing a selection of artists to highlight the sheer wealth and singularity of Lithuanian art from the 1960s to the present. The exhibition reveals some new acquisitions by artists over several generations whose works are of great significance to the history of their nation. This significant donation made possible thanks to the generous backing of the founders of the MO Museum, Danguolé and Viktoras Butkus, has enhanced the Centre Pompidou collection. 

Marija Teresė Rožanskaitė, Kazimiera Zimblytė, Linas Leonas Katinas, Vincas Kisarauskas and Elvyra Kairiūktytė all suffered oppression for their innovative work during the Soviet occupation, and have only achieved posthumous recognition. 

Despite these obstacles, the artists created some remarkable works, conveying audacious messages. In the current context of tensions and the resurgence of imperialism, these works give crucial voices an opportunity of expression. Thanks to financial backing for the Lithuanian Season in France, the exhibition also features donations from contemporary Lithuanian artists including Eglė Rakauskaitė, Anastasia Sosunova, Andrius Arutiunian, Žilvinas Landzbergas and Pakui Hardware. They have all achieved recognition for their ground-breaking approaches, and  to this date they continue to make their mark on the international art scene. 

Kazys Varnelis 

Lithuanian Op Classicist  

In partnership with the National Museum of Lithuania, the Centre Pompidou is giving visitors a chance to admire the work of Lithuanian artist Kazys Varnelis for the first time in France. Around 15 works are on show, mainly from his peak period in the 1970s. 

Kazys Varnelis (1917-2010) worked for most of his career in the US, before returning to Vilnius in 1998. In 2003, the Kazys Varnelis House-Museum in Vilnius became a department of the National Museum of Lithuania. As an artist, he started out combining a constructivist take with traditional ornaments, then in the mid-1960s he veered into Op Art, which was at its height at the time. Varnelis’ work stands out within this trend. Shading effects ranging from luminous to sombre and a monochrome pictorial field together produce an arrangement of cylindric segments which sometimes appear to meander, breaking free from the traditional four-sided format for greater visual impact. With his optical effects and use of “shaped canvas”, Varnelis’ painting is both a fully-fledged part of the ongoing historical narrative  while simultaneously being very much on the fringe.