When Art Is a History Marker: YIVO Commemorative Exhibition in Vilnius

Historical Art and Sculpture at the the first in the world exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of YIVO

Part IV. 

From the beginning of March 2025 and until mid-September, a special multi-genre exhibition is on display in the heart of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. This exhibition set in the Vilnius Picture Gallery, part of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, is the first in the world commemorating the 100th anniversary of YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, a legendary cultural and educational institution which is known for many as the New York cultural milestone, especially in the world of Yiddish culture, but which has been conceived and established by the small group of outstanding Jewish scholars a century ago in Vilnius, Lithuania, with people from the core-group of its founders being active and productive also in Berlin, Warsaw and Paris, all this before the beginning of the Second World War and the Holocaust.  

Part of the YIVO Commemorative exhibition. Vilnius Picture Gallery. Lithuanian National Museum of Art. (C) Gintare Grigenaite.

Due to the multi-genre concept of the exhibition and veracity of its materials, it is reviewed in a serialised way. After analysing its concept, and truly wide international cooperation, as well as looking closer at the fascinating artefacts, authentic and touching documents from the YIVO incredible archive, and very rare books and manuscripts, I am getting to the fascinating selection of historical art and outstanding sculptures there. 

Art as a History Marker

The exhibition at the Vilnius Picture Gallery is large; it occupies two floors of a historical building of the Chodkiewicz Palace of the 18th century which is located in the heart of the Lithuanian capital. Commemorative exhibitions are never an easy task,  if only for the reason that curators and organisers are very tempted to put as many exhibits as possible, in an uplifted mood of commemoration. In the case of the Vilnius Picture Gallery, the exhibition is measured and balanced, to keep one’s attention and providing a room for reflection. 

As Vilnius Picture Gallery and the Lithuanian National Museum of Art celebrate a century of quite intense history of Lithuanian Jewry, one of the most eventful, rich with outstanding figures, parts of the world Jewry history, its historical art and sculpture section reflects it in a sophisticated way.  On the walls and in the halls of the museum, one see two tendencies unfolding in a parallel: there are many fine, with some rare, works of the non-Jewish artists of the past depicting Jewish subjects, and at the same time, one can see some quite substantial works of an important Jewish artists on a non-Jewish subjects. 

Such a melody ‘sung’ in a unison in the historical art and sculpture selection of the exhibition actually reflects not only an art process in Lithuania in its historical perspective. It reflects the conditions of life in Lithuania back in the centuries, with its Jewish population being such a sizeable part of it, and also psychologically, culturally and intellectually so, that that process went one and was characteristic for Lithuania for quite a while. It is a special phenomenon, one of several related to the history of Lithuanian Jewry and its impact and meaning on culture,  arts, science, literature and public life both inside Lithuania and far beyond it. 

Among many rare artistic exhibits on the walls, there is a large map , a beautiful, elaborated and masterly crafted copper engraving on paper  made in the 18th century. It is the Map of Franciscan Observant ( Bernardine) Order Monasteries in the Province of Lithuania. Important for its time period, and now for history and posterity, the record of detailed knowledge in the form of a very good art has been produced by Hirsh Leibovitch, a known master of the period when map art was still in its zenith. And it is great that such authentic records and artistry at the same time has been preserved , so we are able to see it three centuries later.  There are some more  very good works and historically meaningful of Hirsh Leibovitch at the exhibition. 

Hirsh Leibovitch. Map of Franciscan Monasteries in Lithuania. Middle 18th century. Lithuanian National Museum of Art. (C) Gintare Grigenaite. LNDM.

Just on the neighbouring wall, one is delighted to see a series of four selected works of quite well-known at their time French masters of the late 18th century, such as Sebastien Louis Guillamme Norllin de la Goudaine and Philibert Louis Debucort,  who were visiting Poland and Lithuania, and lived there for some while. Their colour aquatints of Jewish children and scenes of Jewish life are full of life and are a very good sample of the French finesse in this very popular art technique of the 18th century. It is a joy. 

Selection of the rare aquatints of the prolific French masters from the Lithuanian National Museum of Art collection. (C) Inna Rogatchi.

It is also a very articulated art history live print: Sebastien de la Goudaine was a son of a famous artist and himself a winner of the Paix de Rome Prize in early 1820s, and his craft was highly regarded both in France and Italy. Philibert Louis Debucourt also was quite a notable artistic figure of the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, perhaps the leading master of acquatints , which were extremely fashionable – and expensive – in the period. He was the  full member of the French Academie of Arts, and the artist who was honoured to live in the Louvre for more than a decade, most likely, due to the merits of his father-in-law, a very famous French court sculptor Louis-Philippe Mochy, whose sculptures are the national treasure of France to this day. 

There are some more superb works of a well-known in their time Dutch, British, German,  Lithuanian and Polish artists from the 17th through 19th century ,  and very notable printmakers and engravers, such as  Jan van Vianen, Robert Johnson,  Christian Geissler, Jan Rustem, Marcelli Januszkiewicz, Aleksander Raczynski,  Julian Karczewski, Isidor Kauffman, who pictured the characters and scenes of Jewish life in Lithuania in both the 18th and 19th century in a fine detail and with a keen eye. The presence of all those couple of dozen fine works at the exhibition does provide a vivid and authentic background to the narrative of the Jewish history in Lithuania. 

Marcelli Janusszkiewicz. Jews at Home. Early 19th century. Lithuanian National Museum of Art. (C) Inna Rogatchi

In a coherent vision of the curators, a field of sculpture is presented at the exhibition also in the same pattern, showing the works of both non-Jewish artists portraying Jewish themes and subjects, and Jewish artists elaborating on a non-Jewish themes. 

A well-known and just beautiful marble Portrait of an Unknown Woman by the great Jewish sculptor Mark Antokolsky , who was born in Vilnius where his family lived, and where he returned to marry the love of his life after graduating from the Imperial Academy of Arts in St-Petersburg in the second part of the 19th century, which is the story of its own, is one of the treasures of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art’s own collection, the same as two masterly small bas-reliefs by the great master, also exhibited now. The  public was privileged to see the marble portrait of a woman also at the recent enough and very notable exhibition of the Litvak artists organised by the Lithuanian National Museum of Art back in 2023. The work is a national treasure of Lithuania. It is just perfect. 

Mark Antokolsky. Portrait of an Unknown Woman. Marble. 1877. Lithuanian National Museum of Art. (C) Gintare Grigenaite. LNDM

Looking on the great Antokolsky’s genius from a very short distance, I was thinking about this great talent, who never gave up his Jewish belief, and all of the sudden, I remembered a telling detail: when young Moshe Segal during his first trip to Paris, a bit over decade after Antokolsky’s premature passing in Germany, was thinking of changing his name into more European one, he decided that he will be Marc after Antokolsky. 

Antokolsky, who set up a historic record of being not only the best, but also the first Jewish sculptor in the Russian Empire ever, and the first sculptor from Russia of all time whose work has been sold abroad ( to such a significant place as the Kensington Collection in London),  might smile on that gesture of young Chagall, as he himself became Mark from Morduch when entering , against the will of many, the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg, and always being under constant, and never seized pressure of a steady anti-Semitic sentiments  against him in Russia during all his life,  with an ironic exclusion of  his imperial fans and benefactors, including the Tsar family themselves. 

The only thing that did help Antokolsky to overcome that never stopped prejudice against him because of his Jewishness, was his immense talent. Interestingly enough, both small bas-reliefs exhibited next to a beautiful marble sculpture at the current exhibition in Vilnius , both depicting Christ, have a special historical meaning  and reference in a personal story of the great sculptor. After Morduch’s bar-mitzvah, 13-years old Antokolsky against the will of his father decisively started as an apprentice of a wood-carver and worked as such for several years. 

Portrait of Mark Antokolsky made by famous artist Ilya Repin at the time when two young men shared the room for four years during their studies at the Imperial Academy of Art in St Petersburg. 1866. Credit: Art Archive. With kind permission.

It is believed that he was very  keen on art in general, tried to see as much of it as he could, and was deeply impressed by reproductions of  some of van Dyck’s works depicting religious scenes. The images of Christ resembling the ones from the van Dyck’s paintings that are on display on the commemorating exhibition in Vilnius today, are the same images that young Morduch Antokolsky carved on wood as his first steps in art, and which did help him to get from Vilna to St Petersburg, to the Academy of Fine Arts there. Antokolsky never gave up on that motive and that very image, from which his extraordinary career has started. It is truly special to see it 165 years later at the exhibition that lovingly restores the history of Lithuanian Jewry in Vilnius today. Great Jewish sculptor Mark Antokolsky, with his super-winning art and his continuously suffering life, is definitely one of its brightest stars. 

Among the exhibition’s biggest magnets is a fantastic wooden sculpture of the early 18th century that did grab attention of all and everyone present at the vernissage. We saw an indisputable masterpiece, rare, historical, vivid, accomplished, with the message coming through absolutely articulated from over three centuries. 

One of the exhibition’s curators Gabi Kasparaviciute-Kaminskiene with member of the public next to the rare authentic sculpture of the early 18th century at the YIVO commemorative exhibition. Vilnius Picture Gallery. (C) Gintare Grigenaite. LNDM

Wooden carved sculptures were very popular during the late Baroque, and in Lithuania, the tradition was very strong and developed indeed. We do not know much about this rare sculpture, except that it belonged to the disappeared wooden central altar from the famous Saints Paul and Peter Church in Vilnius.

In another interesting knot of  history, the church dominates Antakalnis district in Vilnius. It is from this very name of this very place, which was then a suburb of Vilna with a high proportion of Jewish population, that the grandfather of sculptor Mark Antokolsky , following the regulation of the authorities, took the surname for his and his family in the beginning of the 19th century.  

The church itself is a very fine and important sample of late Baroque, which was built, supervised and restored several times by different generations of well-known Italian masters over three centuries, except its latest restoration in the 1980s. This church is regarded as the most beautiful in Vilnius and as one of the most beautiful in Europe and in the world. It is a rare surviving example of a stupendous late Baroque decorative art world-wide. 

Wooden carved sculpture of one of the Twelve Tribes from the disappeared main altar at the Saints Paul and Peter Church in Vilnius. Later 17th – early 18th century. Diocese of Panevezys. (C) Inna Rogatchi

As it is known from the preserved inventory of the art of the Saints Paul and Peter Church of 1766, its main altar had twelve wooden carved and gilded sculptures representing the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Most likely, the sculpture of a dancing Jew with the Book who nowadays belongs to Diocese of Panevezys, is one of them, possibly Issachar. It is a rare piece of survived rare and valuable art and history in every sense of it.  And choosing it as one of the key points of interest for this multi-sided exhibition was ‘a bingo’ decision by the exhibition’s curators. 

March – April 2025, Vilnius

You Shall Not Make an Image. Commandments, Daily Life and Change exhibition at the Vilnius Picture Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania. March 5 – September 14, 2025.