The exhibition “NOW & THEN” is the second collaborative project between Vilnius Town Hall and the VDA Museum (the first being the exhibition “Vilnius and Its People”). Its essence (formally speaking) is to showcase the works of VDA graduates—currently well-known artists representing various generations, strategies, and worldviews—comparing their student creations (preserved in institutional archives) with their contemporary works.
John Lennon created a song titled “Now & Then” at the end of the 1980s. This piece was not released to the public until the legendary musician’s death and was published only in 1995. “Then & Now” is also an album by the progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 1998. As the title suggests, it features older (from 1974) and newer (from 1997–1998) works. Similarly, a 2012 documentary film about the psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd carried the same name. All these works draw a line between opposing states and different time periods, reflecting on life and love.
The project’s name encodes dual meanings. On one hand, the exhibition presents works created from the 1980s to the present day in an oppositional dichotomous principle, representing different eras chronologically. This approach reveals both comparative and “contrasting” methodological aspects. It includes playful and analytical elements, as comparing how people evolve and change allows for specific conclusions. Some artists’ works have changed drastically, while others have evolved more gradually or mutated minimally. There are many paths, and the juxtaposed works reveal the trajectory from “then” to “now.”
On the other hand, the collection was intentionally curated to feature more prominent artists in the Lithuanian art scene. This approach serves an educational function, visually presenting the artists’ transformations, creative journeys, and evolutions, as well as significant shifts and distinctions. Many of the featured artists studied during the Soviet era at the then LTSR State Art Institute or in the early years of the reformed Academy. Therefore, the exhibition represents not only personal but also cultural shifts, significant changes in societal consciousness, and collective subconscious. It suggests that while a stricter academic art “education” system might foster radically different free creativity, student tasks may still contain seeds of later artistic potential (perhaps not to be called genius).
The exhibition, symbolically opening on the first day of the new academic year, is displayed in two spaces—Vilnius Town Hall and the VDA Gallery “Akademija.” This way, Lithuania’s only higher art school not only steps out of its cells, studios, and classrooms (with the Town Hall metaphorically embodying the transition from student to professional) but also, by looking back, restarts through the current and upcoming generations.
Curator and text author: Art historian Dr. Vidas Poškus
