In the Beginning Was the Line – a new exhibition at the Vilnius Picture Gallery

Exhibition opening at 5 pm on Tuesday, 23 June, 2026

Tuesday, 23 June at 5 pm, the Vilnius Picture Gallery of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art opens a new exhibition In the Beginning Was the Line. The Lithuanian National Museum’s Collections: Drawings from the 18th to the 21st Century, a comprehensive overview of the Lithuanian drawing tradition and its development.  The display invites to follow the trajectory of drawing from rare 18th-century specimen to the rich academic drawing collection by the art departments of Vilnius University, from the Vilnius Drawing School and the interwar modernist period to the second half of the 20th century and experiments of contemporary artists.  

 

“I feel elated by this exhibition,” Dr Aiste Bimbiryte, director of the Vilnius Picture Gallery of the LNMA, is indeed sincerely happy. “In the world of art, especially when it comes to ancient art, we are used to seeing the final result; rare are the occasions when we get to experience the very process. This is due to the fact that drawings were long perceived as preparatory forms, references for work in another medium, but not only. Fragility and perishability of drawings also account for the fact they are not showed a lot. But it is exactly in a drawing where an initial artist’s perspective, conception and development of the idea  get captured. Often times, drawings are more spontaneous and immediate compared to the finished work. No surprise that foreign museums have been recently presenting more exhibitions by the old masters, on the other hand, they show drawings and sketches by the well-known designers. This signals the growing awareness that the value of a piece of art is not solely in the final result: its gestation journey also matters. I invite you to the exhibition – a meeting point of looks, ideas and experiment from over two hundred years. I believe it will present the drawing not only as a “transit stop”, but as an independent piece of art, too, bringing us closer to the miracle of creation.”  

 

“The LNMA boasts one of the largest drawings collections in Lithuania, totaling at around 10 thousand works. Due to their fragile nature and specific exhibition requirements, drawings are included into exhibitions in bits and parts only. We expect this exhibition presenting the collections of drawings in the LNMA in a comprehensive manner, must be interesting its viewers,” Rasa Adomaitienė and Regina Urbonienė, curators of the exhibition, are hopeful.  

 

 

 

Drawing as a tool of thinking  

 

Thematic cross-sections of the exhibition establish drawing as a universal form of artistic expression, artist companion at all stages of one’s career. The display starts with drawing as a method to understand the form, volume, light and proportion. Though the approach of academic practice changes over time, it remains an important foundation in the professional formation of an artist, bringing together discipline, precision and creative freedom. The drawings on display reflect a varying-through-epochs artists’ view of the surrounding world, and their ability to recognize the aesthetic value in the mundane. Another thematic cross-section is concerned with the perception of the inner world of human subjects. Portraits and self-portraits render not only a physical likeness, they reflect the inner states of mind, self-reflection, search for identity and creative aspirations.  

Besides finished drawings, the exhibition includes rapid sketches done in a contour line, capturing artists’ early ideas. Sketches are records of the most authentic creative episodes – spur-of-the moment expressions of an idea crossing the artist’s mind. They show the course of the artist’s deliberation from the very first lines to other stages leading to a more elaborate and changing image. Sketches often are more immediate and allow space for interpretation, also, work for perceiver’s imagination. Finally, drawing is presented as a tool of intellectual reflection – an independent form of art embracing ideas, experiment and new creative worlds. The boundaries of drawing are continuously pushed further: it is more frequently linked to other forms of expression and becomes part of projects and installations. For the artists, it opens a creative space for improvisation and experiment.  

 

 

The classics of Lithuanian art next to contemporary artists  

 

The exhibition brings together the artwork by the artists who defined different epochs of Lithuanian art, giving the sense of chronological development of the drawing from the 18th century to the present day. During the process of putting the exhibition together, generous presents by the artists entered the collections of the LNMA, donated by the artists Žygimantas Augustinas, Paulius Juška, Rimvydas Kepežinskas, Eglė Kuckaitė, Birutė Stančikaitė, Gerardas Šlektavičius and Skaistė Verdingytė. Artists brothers Algirdas and Remigijus Gataveckai are invited guests of the exhibition. The exhibition features their large-scale drawing in pencil, a portrait of an inmate of an orphanage, titled You Are Already Looking at Me Longer Than My Parents Ever Did from their project Impact (2017 – 2025). It took nearly eight years for the artists to create the portrait.   

 

 

A rich programme of events accompanying the exhibition will facilitate the understanding of the Lithuanian drawing tradition. It includes curator guided tours, and tours with the museum guide, open lectures on a variety of themes – from the ancient drawings to the paradoxes of contemporary works.  

 

Visitors are invited to take part in educational events, including an action of performative drawing. Artists brothers Gataveckai, together with participants, will create once-only collaborative drawings titled Homonyms: a work based on creative practice by Gataveckai. Visitors of different age groups will have an opportunity to discover one of the oldest techniques of copying – drawing with a tracing frame. Participants of the Five Minutes studio will be given several minutes to observe, select key elements and render the sitter’s character. The studio In the Beginning Was the Line will introduce the basics of drawing; participants will sample several techniques that were and still are used in art. For detailed information on these events please go the Vilnius Gallery of Art website and social media.  

 

 

The exhibition will be on until 10 January 2027.  

 

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4 Didžioji st, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 261 1685
vpg@lndm.lt

See also

Exhibition

In The Beginning Was The Line. The Lithuanian National Museum of Art Collections: Drawings from the 18th to the 21st Century