Unearthly delights from a neglected artist

MK Čiurlionis

Dulwich Picture Gallery, London SE21 ★★★★★

Since its advent in the West in the early 20th century, various artists have been cited as the “founder” of abstract art – from Kandinsky and Mondrian to Hilma af Klint.

Also in the mix is a relatively little-known Lithuanian, Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, the subject of a new retrospective at Dulwich Picture Gallery. His work rarely leaves his homeland, and this is his first major exhibition in the UK. His principal career, in fact, was as a composer; Čiurlionis’s musical pieces are still played with reasonable frequency around the world today. He only turned to art in the final eight or so years of his life, before his death in 1911 from pneumonia, aged just 36.

On this show’s evidence, he made those years count. The paired paintings Daybreak I and Daybreak II (both 1906) are typical for the way Čiurlionis draws the viewer in with rich mark-making; only after extended engagement can some sort of figurative scene be discerned. In the case of both works, the scene is a long, empty, light-flooded avenue slicing through a forest. In Serenity (1904-05), a ghostly landmass has risen out of the still waters of a lake. Čiurlionis preferred to paint in tempera rather than oils, and the result is a thinness of colour that lends itself nicely to suggesting the otherworldly. In truth, abstraction in Western art emerged gradually over the course of many years rather than being the great leap forward of one single painter. And, as the subtitle of this exhibition, Between Worlds, implies, Čiurlionis would be better classed as a Symbolist artist than an abstract one: he shared the Symbolist fondness for escaping into dreamy otherworlds.

In his latter years, however, his pictures became more figurative, partly a product of his growing nationalism. The Russian Revolution of 1905 had offered a glimmer of hope for the many Lithuanians such as Čiurlionis who sought independence from the Russian Empire, and towards the end of his brief career, he would commonly include motifs such as armed knights on horseback. These alluded to Lithuania’s struggle for freedom, and invested his art with political flavour – but it was a flavour that did it no favours. Nevertheless, overall, this show is a welcome outing for an artist, whose paintings remain less known than his piano pieces.

Until March 12 2023. Tickets: 020 8693 5254; dulwichpicturegallery. org.uk

Perchance to dream: Sonata of the Sea features at the Dulwich retrospective