Positioning the Creative Work of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis in Modern Art History: Insights from International Exhibitions After the 1990s

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875–1911) is the Lithuanian artist probably most frequently presented to the international public. Since the 1990s, when the political and cultural situation in Lithuania changed, his paintings have been constantly showcased in various museums and galleries around the world, in both solo and group exhibitions mostly dedicated to art movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, these exhibitions have not yet been properly explored. The aim of this article is to analyse and critically evaluate the strategies and concepts of international exhibitions of Čiurlionis’ art from the 1990s onwards, revealing the criteria for the selection and display of his works, as well as the place of Čiurlionis’ art in the history of modern art.

The international exhibitions are analysed applying descriptive, historiographical, analytical and discourse analysis methods, and supported by the views of art historians Steven A. Mansbach and Piotr Piotrowski, who particularly were interested in disparities and complex differences between Eastern and Western modernism. Čiurlionis was educated and sought recognition in the cultural environment of Eastern and Central Europe, while most of his international exhibitions after the 1990s were organised by curators from Western Europe, which creates similar tensions reflected by above-mentioned authors.