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

23 June, 2026 – 10 January, 2027

The line was humanity’s first gesture in the attempt to comprehend and shape the world. Drawing became a link between gaze, thought, and the movement of the hand. This exhibition traces its journey – from academic discipline to free, conceptual thinking; from careful observation to the expression of inner impulse.

 

Eight rooms present a concise overview of the Lithuanian tradition of drawing and its transformation over time. The exhibition opens with examples of academic drawing from the art departments of Vilnius University. It then moves through the Vilnius Drawing School and the interwar modernist period, continuing into the late 20th century and the work of contemporary artists. Five thematic sections – „Patience and Impulse“, „Discoveries in Everyday Life“, „Strokes of Personality“, „Contours of Ideas“, and „Undrawn Boundaries“ – not only survey the history of drawing, but also reassert its relevance and reveal the full breadth of its possibilities.

 

The exhibition invites visitors to consider drawing as a universal form of artistic expression and as the outcome of a living creative process.

 

 

Organizer: LNDM Vilniaus paveikslų galerija

Curators: Rasa Adomaitienė, Regina Urbonienė

Coordinators: Aistė Bimbirytė, Gabija Kasparavičiutė-Kaminskienė, Joana Vitkutė

Architects: RESH

Graphic Designer: Edita Namajūnienė

Designer: Vadim Šamkov

Editor: Ilona Čiužauskaitė

Translator: Raminta Bumbulytė

Conservators: Pranas Gudynas Conservation Centre, Department of Paper Artwork Conservation

Partners: Algirdas and Remigijus Gataveckai

Media Sponsors: JCDecaux Lietuva, Delfi

 

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

See also

Exhibition opening

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