A true highlight of Belarusian cultural life in 2024 was the exhibition dedicated to the 170th anniversary of the birth of Yudel Pen and the 155th anniversary of the birth of Yakov Kruger, graduates of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, artists and teachers who stood at the origins of professional art education on the territory of modern Belarus, having founded private schools of drawing and painting in Vitebsk and Minsk. For many of their students, they became the first and the most important teachers in their lives.
For the first time the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus brings to the Republic of Azerbaijan an exhibition project showcasing 61 paintings and graphic works of the late 19th – mid-20th century from its collection.
The exhibition at the National Art Museum of Azerbaijan is a display of the creative legacy of two outstanding Belarusian painters, Yudel Pen (1854–1937) and Yakov Kruger (1969–1940), as well as the work of a whole constellation of their students: the world-famous Marc Chagall and Michel Kikoïne, Ivan Akhremchik, People’s Artist of the BSSR, Soviet/Belarusian painters and graphic artists Lev Zevin, Mikhail Kuni, Lev Leytman, Lazar Ran, Yefim Royak, Vyacheslav Rutsay, Mikhail Stanyuta, Solomon Yudovin, Pyotr Yavich – all representing a variety of artistic movements and trends which create a comprehensive portrait of the Belarusian national art school.
The exhibition “Yudel Pen, Yakov Kruger. At the origins of Belarusian art education. Paintings and graphic art from the collection of the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus” will be on display from 6 March to 4 May, 2025.
