An exhibition of works by Y. Pean from the funds of the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore has opened at the Zarasai Region Museum (Lithuania)

Artist Yury Pen (1854-1937), the first teacher of such celebrities as Marc Chagall, Ossip Zadkine, Oscar Meshchaninov, Lazar Lissitzky, and a number of other famous masters, was born in the small town of Novoaleksandrovsk (now Zarasai, Lithuania).

On August 14, 2014, the Zarasai Region Museum hosted the opening of an exhibition of Y. Pen's works from the collections of the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. This was the first exhibition of the artist's works in his homeland and in Lithuania. The exhibition launched the events held as part of the celebration of the City Day "Zarasai – 508".

The opening was attended by: Member of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania Algimantas Dumbrava, Deputy Mayor of Zarasai District Nikolajus Gucevas, Deputy Head of the Education and Culture Department of the Zarasai District Municipality Administration Daiva Šukšтуlene, Director of the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore Gleb Savitsky, Director of the Zarasai Region Museum Ilona Vaitkevičienė, and representatives of the city and regional community.

At the opening of the exhibition, the Deputy Mayor of Zarasai District, Nikolajus Gucevas, said:

"My life is my paintings," said our countryman, the famous artist Yury Pen. It is a great honor for us that today, for the first time in the city of Zarasai and in Lithuania, we have the opportunity to see a small part of the works of the famous artist, and to search for fragments of the artist's native Novoaleksandrovsk (now Zarasai) in the presented paintings and to feel the artist's longing for his hometown. To every visitor of this unique exhibition, as they view the presented paintings by Yury Pen, I wish them to find the truth in the words of his student Marc Chagall: "You don't need to walk around the city, pay attention to people, you don't need to go to the theater, to church, to the synagogue – you have everything in front of you, everything groans, cries in Pen's paintings every minute, day and night, on Saturday, on holidays."

The exhibition features 27 paintings: landscapes of Zarasai and Vitebsk, portraits, and genre paintings. The exhibition is organized as part of the project "The Road of Jewish Culture (Fine Arts): Y. Pen and His Famous Students," which unites Lithuania, Latvia, and Belarus.

The exhibition organizers express their gratitude to the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Minsk and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania for their assistance.

The fifth plein air event "Zarasai – Land of Lakes 2014" was dedicated to the anniversary of Yu. Pen. The final exhibition, which opened on August 14, 2014, at the exhibition hall of the Zarasai Culture Center, featured artists from 3 countries (Lithuania, Latvia, and Belarus). Vitebsk was represented by Andrey Dukhounikov and Dmitry Gorolevich.