A month later, on November 28, the exhibition “Brazilian Modernist from Vilnius: The Return of Lazarus Segallo” will open at the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum (Naugarduko St. 10/2). Vilnius residents and city guests will have a unique opportunity to see as many as 57 works by one of the most famous Brazilian modernists, Lazarus Segallo (1889-1957), flown in from his museum in São Paulo.
The exhibition, dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the artist's birth and the 30th anniversary of the restoration of the State Vilna Gaon Jewish Museum, opens on the eve of 2020, declared the Year of the Vilna Gaon and the History of Lithuanian Jews.
Lasaris Segall, the son of a Torah scribe from Vilnius, a pioneer of Brazilian expressionism, began his artistic career at the M. Antokolski School of Industrial Art, studied at the Berlin School of Applied Arts, the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, and was also a member of the German Expressionist group. die brucke (Tilting) member. In 1923 he moved to São Paulo, where his arrival was welcomed by the famous art critic and social activist Marijus de Andrade (Mario Raul de Morais Andrade) was considered a victory for Brazilian avant-garde art. It was L. Segall who was given the honor of representing Brazil in the main hall of the pavilion at the 1955 São Paulo Art Biennial.
According to Dr. Kamilė Rupeikaitė, Director of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, “We have been dreaming of organizing a large exhibition of Lasario Segallo’s works in cooperation with Brazil for many years. In 2018, I had the opportunity to visit São Paulo and establish contact with the then recently appointed new director of the Lasario Segallo Museum, Giancarlo Hannud. His expressed sincere desire to cooperate encouraged us to begin practical steps to organize such an exhibition so that we could commemorate the 130th anniversary of Segallo’s birth with this cooperation. The implementation of this goal, which requires huge funds, would not be possible without comprehensive support and generous support from both the state and private sectors in Lithuania and Brazil.
We hope that Segall's works will successfully reach Vilnius, and for three months, visitors to our museum will have a unique opportunity to discover this world-class artist, who is still little known in Lithuania due to the complex historical and political upheavals of the 20th century. The cooperation between Lithuania and Brazil in bringing Segall's works to his hometown is historic. We are very pleased that Segall's grandchildren and other relatives intend to come to the opening of the exhibition, who, we hope, will also discover their connection to Lithuania."
In order to reveal L. Segallo's contribution to the history of modern art, the multiplicity of his identity, the diversity of his creative themes and style, the exhibition "Brazilian Modernist from Vilnius: The Return of Lásários Segallo" will feature the artist's paintings, watercolors, graphic works and sculptures. The exhibition of artworks will be complemented by photographs and documents providing information about the artist's life and wanderings around the world. This is the first time that an exhibition of Lásários Segallo's works of this scale has been held in his native Vilnius and in Lithuania in general.
