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

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.