Exhibition „Night Visions: Paintings of the 17th – 20th Century from Mykolas Žilinskas Collection”

M. Žilinskas Art Gallery, Nepriklausomybės sq. 12, Kaunas

Exhibition „Night Visions: Paintings of the 17th – 20th Century from Mykolas Žilinskas Collection”.

The exhibition represents the works of various painters from Europe, created in the 17th-20th centuries. These images, inspired by the beauty and mystery of the night, were donated to Lithuania by a famous collector Mykolas Žilinskas (1904-1992). The paintings rarely come to the halls of gallery and some of them are exhibited for the first time.

The night, as a background, is observed in the paintings of Western European Art since 14th century. However, as a separate and independent genre, the nocturnes became popular in the Dutch Art of the 17th century. The exhibition is introduced with the scenery of the follower of one of the most famous and subtle night-time painters – Aerto van der Neero. A bit later, the night becomes an important source of inspiration for Romanticists. In the exhibited works, the night usually gains a shape of sublime, dreamy, mystical or even sacred nature. Another major group of nocturnes’ admirers were the Symbolists, who created in the junction of 19th-20th centuries. They usually associated night with mystery, darkness, fear, evil or pain. In addition, the night can become a great cover for a journey to a fantastic world of dreams, feelings and fairy tales of both transcendental Romanticists and reality-escaping Symbolists. The Realists, who created in the second half of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century, simply tried to convey the spontaneous beauty of the night. 

The exhibited nocturnes not only reveal the multi-faceted world of the night, but also reflect the personal taste of M. Žilinskas. For him, the importance and value of the work could be seen not only on an impressive canvas, painted by a famous artist, but also on a small piece of work by an unknown or little-known artist, who has touched the collector‘s heart. 

Curator of the exhibition Irmantė Šarakauskienė

The exhibition is open 18 05 2019 – 30 06 2019