This Thursday (29 November), in conclusion of the series of events commemorating the ten year anniversary of the Young Painters Prize (YPP), the project organisers, art theorist Julija Dailidėnaitė and painter Vilmantas Marcinkevičius, donated a painting collection to the Lithuanian Art Museum. The collection has been comprised of the artworks by the last decade’s YPP awardees.
“This gesture is highly beneficial to the young artists who can now pride themselves with the fact that their artworks became part of the national art collection—a truly prestigious sign of recognition. Furthermore, this also constitutes a significant gift to the Lithuanian Art Museum, because the National Art Gallery will now be able to feature new works of contemporary art in their shows,” said Dailidėnaitė.
Recent years have witnessed a growth in the forms and opportunities for art patronage in Lithuania. Put together by the YPP project organisers and patrons Mindaugas Raila, Nicolas Oritz, Lewben Art Foundation and Dali van Rooij Rakutyte, the YPP collection is extremely valuable to the Lithuanian art history
because it chronicles the achievements of the young generation. The inclusion of their artworks into the national art collection is a significant step towards the successful collaboration between the national art institutions and private art initiatives.
Lolita Jablonskienė, the Director of the National Art Gallery, was extremely pleased about the institutional collaboration with the YPP project. “Over the recent years, the Lithuanian Art Museum—including the National Art Gallery, a subdivision that showcases modern and contemporary art—has been expanding its collections of the current Lithuanian art by acquiring the artworks by the young artists. However, this is a slow process due to the limitations of the museum’s acquisitions budget, so we are extremely happy with the donation provided by the YPP organisers. I’d like to express our sincere gratitude,” said Jablonskienė.
The last decade’s work has been concluded by the publication of the book about the young artist generation. The book features texts by the three art theorists—Justė Augustė (Lithuania), Līna Birzaka-Priekule (Latvia) and Merilin Talumaa (Estonia). The book also includes photo reports from the YPP events as well as interviews with the YPP awardees Andrius Zakarauskas, Jolanta Kyzikaitė, Jonas Jurcikas, Zane Tuča, Martynas Petreikis, Eglė Butkutė, Andrius Ivanovas, Rosanda Sorakaitė, Alexei Gordin and Monika Plentauskaitė. The illustrated publication is also appended with the reproductions of their artworks that comprise the YPP collection.
The book presentation featured a public discussion about the young artist generation and the role that YPP—a result of a private initiative—plays in the art field. The discussion participants included Dr. Lolita Jablonskienė, the Director of the National Art Gallery; Giedrė Šileikytė, the Head of “Autoriai”, a creative communications agency; Jurgita Juospaitytė-Bitinienė, the curator at the The Rooster Gallery; and Neringa Bumblienė, a curator at the Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre.