Between Dawns. Acquisitions of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, 2015–2025

18 July–21 September, 2025

 

What can a museum’s collection tell us when we look at something only just beginning to take shape as heritage? The predawn of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art collection begins in 1907, when, amid a wave of national romanticism in Vilnius, societies dedicated to nurturing Lithuanian science and culture first emerged. On the initiative of their members, these organisations began collecting artefacts and artworks important to the region’s history and culture. Many of these early acquisitions later entered the national museums’ collections.  

  

Today, the LNMA holds roughly a quarter of a million works of Lithuanian and international art, which are researched, catalogued, and conserved by curators across various departments – including sculpture, graphic arts, painting, photography, applied arts, folk art, and more. Between 2015 and 2025, more than 22,000 works of art were added to the LNMA’s collection, including 1,791 works acquired through purchase. This surge marks a major shift in both the scale and strategy of the Museum’s acquisitions, fragments of which are on view in the current exhibition.  

  

The past decade has been shaped by evolving cultural policies, shifting economic conditions, as well as revised collection‐building strategies, and turnover in Museum’s leadership. While acquisitions remain rooted in national value, there is an equally strong focus on the present moment: historical canons are reconsidered in light of today’s political and socio-cultural contexts. Most newly acquired works don’t appear in exhibitions right away – their true significance often reveals itself over time, the impact of which cannot be assessed in advance. 

  

The exhibition has been arranged as a panoramic, schematic survey of the LNMA’s collections of visual art. Its stark medium-based divisions – painting, graphic arts, sculpture, and photography (including video) – point to just a sliver of the ‘Grand Archive’. The title evokes momentary states in which echoes of the past merge with forecasts of the future. ‘Between Dawns’ speaks not only to the interval between two dates, but also to a hopeful uncertainty that has guided the collection over the last decade. After all, no collection is ever truly complete. 

 

Curators: Goda Aksamitauskaitė, Giedrius Gulbinas, Egla Mikalajūnė, Aušra Trakšelytė   

Exhibition architect Mindaugas Reklaitis   

Graphic designer Ugnė Balčiūnaitė   

  

Artists: Žygimantas Augustinas, Kristina Ališauskaitė-Volungevičė, Neemija Arbit Blatas, Milda Bartnikaitė-Spindler, Augustas Bidlauskas, Eglė Budvytytė, Silvestras Džiaukštas, Marco Carloni, Inga Dargužytė, Gintaras Didžiapetris, Tatjana Diščenko, Lida Dubauskienė, Stasys Eidrigevičius, Pranas Gailius, Ugnius Gelguda, Antanas Gerlikas, Tadas Gindrėnas, David Goldblatt, Aldona Gustas, Kristina Inčiūraitė, Donatas Jankauskas (Duonis), Agnė Juodvalkytė, Patricija Jurkšaitytė, „Žalias lapas“ (Džiugas Katinas, Gediminas Urbonas), Linas Leonas Katinas, Vytautas Kasiulis, Aleksandra Kasuba, Eglė Kuckaitė, Algimantas Jonas Kuras, Vida Krištolaitytė, Juozas Laivys, Lina Lapelytė, Dainius Liškevičius, Vitas Luckus, Mindaugas Lukošaitis, Paulius Makauskas, Marija Marcelionyė-Paliukė, Mindaugas Navakas, Audrius Novickas, Valentyn Odnoviun, „Pakui Hardware“ (Neringa Černiauskaitė, Ugnius Gelguda), Liudas Parulskis, Lili Janina Paškauskaitė, Artūras Raila, Michael Rakowitz, Petras Repšys, Eglė Ridikaitė, Pranciškus Smuglevičius, Rosanda Sorakaitė, Jonas Staselis, Gintautas Stulgaitis, Ingryda Suokaitė, Veronika Šleivytė, Henrikas Šalkauskas, Raminta Šumskytė-Sum, Algimantas Švėgžda, Gintautas Trimakas, Gediminas Urbonas, Kazys Varnelis, Eglė Vertelkaitė, Justinas Vienožinskis, Romas Viesulas, Vytautas Viržbickas, Kazimiera Zimblytė 
 
Translator Emilija Ferdmanaitė   
Editors: Ilona Čiužauskaitė, Emma Stirling  
Conservators: Rasa Bieliauskaitė-Mikolaitienė, Aistė Eitutytė, Linas Lukoševičius, Audronė Petroševičiūtė, Eglė Piščikaitė, Leokadija Šalkovska 
Technicians: Vadim Šamkov, Vidas Juršėnas, Dainius Markevičius, Tomas Orlovas, Norbert Hinc, Andrius Ivanovas, Tomas Karolis Kucharskis, Salvijus Misevičius, Vytas Narbutas 

Thank you: Rasa Adomaitienė, Irena Dobrovolskaitė, Lina Jonkuvienė, Gintarė Krasuckaitė, Elona Lubytė, Nijolė Nevčesauskienė, Rima Rutkauskienė, Laima Sazonova, Regina Urbonienė 

 

Organiser LNDM Nacionalinė dailės galerija 

Media sponsor JCDecaux Lietuva 

Sponsor Exterus, Fundermax 

  

 

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