Exhibition “Between Light and Ruins: Jan Bułhak’s Vilnius”

To mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, the National Museum of Lithuania is to hold an exhibition dedicated to Jan Brunon Bułhak (1876–1950), one of the most prominent photographers of Vilnius in the first half of the 20th century. Over more than three decades (1912–1944) he created a vast archive of images of Vilnius, which has become an important record of the city’s history.

Bułhak is regarded as one of the most prominent followers of the Pictorialist movement in Lithuania. In his quest to bring photography closer to painting, he paid particular attention to composition and the aesthetic impact of the image. The views of Vilnius’s panoramas and architectural ensembles captured in his photographs are not merely documentary pieces, but also artistic narratives that depict the city.

In the summer of 1944, Bułhak was compelled to view Vilnius from a completely different perspective. Commissioned by the People’s Commissariat for Municipal Services, he and his son Janusz documented the city’s destruction during the storming of Vilnius between 6 and 13 July.

Alongside artistic depictions of Vilnius, the exhibition also features photographs from the Second World War. In this way, these images bear witness to two contrasting faces of the same city – one being built and the other being destroyed, full of beauty yet marked by loss.

The exhibition at the House of Signatories (26 Pilies Street, Vilnius) will run from 7 October 2026 at 5.30 PM to 6 January 2027.

We would like to invite anyone with an interest in the history of our city to come along!

Exhibition organiser: The National Museum of Lithuania
Curators: Liveta Repšienė, Jūratė Gudaitė
Architect: Giedrė Narbutienė
Graphic designer: Jurga Karosaitė
Communications coordinator: Aušra Kaminskaitė
Analogue photography curator: Algirdas Juodis
Editor: Marytė Slušinskaitė