national m. k. ciurlionis art museum

Those who are into painted art this place is outstanding- Ciurlionis was the greatest Lithuanian painter who will touch your feelings. He was a real genius. Place is definitely worth visiting. The museum is right in the center of the city, paired with war museum, which you should visit too.

The M.K. Ciurlionis Art Museum is a wonderful place to visit and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Located on Putvinskio street, it's just a couple of blocks up from Kaunas' principal avenue. During his short life (1875-1911), Mikalojus Ciurlionis created dozens of highly distinctive paintings as well as a large number of original musical compositions, particularly for piano but also two excellent symphonic poems for orchestra. The Art Museum displays only a fraction of Ciurlionis' paintings, but these include almost all that are reproduced in books on him. His works are full of symbolism and many point to the artist's deep interest in the origin and structure of the universe, psychology and the meaning of human life. Some of his paintings form cycles of pictures that view issues of existence from different perspectives; eg the Zodiac and the Creation of the World series. A number of his paintings directly relate to his musical compositions. The museum includes a small theatre where one can sit and listen to his music being played. There is a small giftshop with books and cards for sale, as well as a good selection of hard to find CDs featuring Ciurlionis' music. Staff at the art museum were very helpful and pleasant.

The museum is located in the very centre of the town. It is dedicated to Čiurlionis, a famous Lithuanian artist and composer. Every Picture of the artist gets deep into you and touches your heart and feelings. You can also hear his music in the museum.

Museum is currently (summer 2014) going under renovations and not everything is currently on display, but the paintings by Ciurlionis are like nothing I'd seen before, haunting, visionary and well worth a visit.

Love this place. He is a great philosopher-artist. And an incredible composer.The transfer of music room away from the pictures is a disappointment.

I keep returning to this museum, year after year. And the works of Ciurlionis never cease to amaze me. He was not only a gifted artist but also a composer, and you can hear and see how the two vocations go together when visiting this unique museum.

I enjoyed this museum but not as much as many I have visited. It was well done and I liked the music but I guess that the art did not really get me. Personal view, I know and many will differ.

I only had a short time off so I had to choose which muzeum or gallery I should visit. I never heard of M.K. Ciurlionis before I was in Kaunas, but everybody recommended a visit to this museum where you can listen to his music and see his artwork (mainly paintings). It was very interesting and a perfect way to get introduced to the work and life of this interesting - though in Western Europe not very well known - artist.

This Museun is located in the main street, in the heart of town.There are theatre plays, operetas, expositions, etc.The prices are honest and the place is really cozy.

Some parts of the museum and the collections seem to be closed currently (as of February 2nd 2014), but it doesn´t really interfere with the experience of this fascinating artist; a rough guess would be that perhaps 75 paintings or so (?) are on show, including a lot of the most famous ones. A leaflet says that the museum owns 220 paintings, 52 graphic works and 700 drawings, but they can´t all be shown simultaneously, of course.The museum consists of 1) a basement section with a surprising amount of photos, documents and memorabilia (it came as a surprise to me that Ciurlionis was interested in photography, for example). Also, there´s access from there to a small temporary (?) exhibition about the architect and stage designer Vlada Dubeneckis.2) On the first floor, there´s a concert auditorium and some posters of various Ciurlionis exhibitions abroad.3) on the second floor, you´ll find the paintings, easily seen on a one-way route, formed as a crescendo with the most complicated and largest ones at the end. The works stretch from an amateurish and kitsch-like symbolism of its day, to the sublime, mysterious and magical.The entrance fee is modest, 6 L; the fee for photography is 12 L. The kiosk sells a good selection of literature about Ciurlionis and Lithuanian art (a good small pamphlet in colour is L 6, and a substantial art-historical work, "Ciurlionis - Painter and Composer" (1989, 556 pages) was only 25 L, whereas more recent books with better illustrations are more expensive. You´ll also find some CDs for sale, including an anthology of 4CDs for 80 L, and one with the symphonic poems and the De Profundis cantata in the excellent recording by Domarkas for 25 L, as well as a good selection of very inexpensive musical scores of Ciurlionis works.Nex to the kiosk, there´s also a public study room with a library and computers.The museum is closed on Mondays. There´s no cafe, but plenty of them nearby, on the main walking street.

M. K. Ciurlionis is an unique artist in the world. Amazing paints, fantastic music.Well, it is a museum for adults more, but listen symphonies with kids, they are amazing!

Multi-talented and multi-faceted personality so complex it is taking decades to explore. A painter, a composer, a photographer, and a writer - a legacy for centuries in just 35 years of life. There are no strict definitions to his art and this is what I like best about it - it is all about the feeling. The spirit around the works is phenomenal and the recent reconstruction of the museum helps to emphasize this feeling. Be sure not to miss the ground floor exposition on his life to get e glimpse into the person and after you are done with the paintings be sure to spend some time to listen to the synaesthete music. As always, it is a good idea to do some homework prior to the visit - at least to imagine of what to expect (hey but that's what you are doing if you are reading this!) and do yourself a favor - take your time here TO FEEL RATHER THAN JUST SEE. I stand firmly behind the proposal that Ciurlionis is probably one of the best kept secrets in the world of art.

I’ve been to Kaunas a dozen or so times but only saw the Ciurlionis museum a couple of weeks ago. Basically it's a must see.Slick and polished building. The kind of public place that modern Lithuania does so well. Well-designed and friendly to people like me, who rarely wake up and get excited about going to a museum.Ciurlionis was one of the world pioneers of abstract art. He was also a sculptor and musician – which makes Damien Hirst look lazy. He even had an asteroid named after him. Eat your pickled heart out Mr Hirst …My Lithuanian friend and guide (not affiliated to the museum) insists that Ciurlionis had a penchant for opium - although I can’t find much about that on the web - but it would certainly offer one reason for many of the pictures that spiral languidly out of reality. Being dreamlike, fantastical, creative and often thought-provoking.A few seemed a little basic but most are just beautiful to just look at (and into). My favourite ones had loads of layers to them. The kind of thing that a graphic designer might spend a couple of days playing around with on his computer – looking sideways at his monitor. The difference being that Ciurlionis does them all by hand with (mostly) pastels and tempera. Multi-layered picture-in-picture stuff, trippy landscapes, islands that look like walruses (‘Tranquillity’) etc. Hidden meanings abound so it’s worth reading the blurb that goes with each piece. There’s good clear English although it’s probably worth getting a walking, talking person to give you the full monty in English as there's definitely more to each picture than the word count allows.Ciurlionis was a synaesthete, so that he saw/heard pictures and sounds at the same time. So presumably when he heard some music he could visualise it (and vice versa?). So many of the pictures have musical analogies vibrating along in them (e.g pine trees on a ridge, are, on closer inspection musical notes on a page). Keeps you interested anyway.It's brill.There’s even a big hall you can have a sit down and listen to his music – which is genuinely beautiful enough to warrant £6 or so on the CD. Nice way to finish off the walkabout and there’s few better souvenirs than some music to remind you of your trip.I’d like to go again actually as having read up a bit more on his work and life – I’m sure a second viewing would unravel even more. Plus, when we picked up our coats we found a whole floor dedicated to his life that we didn’t have time to see (it wasn't actually under our coats... just in the room next to the cloakroom...)

We recomend to visit it 100% its most famous Lithuania painter master and composer. Near all his paintings are in this galery. Its mysterious from good side of nature and human soul positive vibrations. Here you can walk and enjoy lift of cultural feelings and memories for long time. Near difrent paintings sounds same artis created clasical music. Nice area around this galery, with historical park, monuments and buildings. Statue of Liberty Angel its in front side of the galery. Historical museum its side by side near galery.

If MKC was painting in Paris .... he would have been hailed genius . His art is original and timeless