Exhibition "Between Light and Ruins: Jan Bułhak's Vilnius"

The National Museum of Lithuania has prepared an exhibition dedicated to one of the most prominent Vilnius photographers of the first half of the 20th century – Jan Brunon Bułhak (1876–1950), whose 150th birth anniversary is being commemorated this year. Over more than three decades (1912–1944), he created a vast archive of Vilnius images, which has become an important testimony to the city's history.

J. Bułhak is considered one of the most prominent followers of the pictorialism movement in Lithuania. Seeking to bring photography closer to painting, he paid special attention to composition and the aesthetic impact of the image. The images of Vilnius panoramas and architectural ensembles captured in his photographs are not only documentary but also artistic narratives about Vilnius.

In the summer of 1944, J. Bułhak had to look at Vilnius with a completely different perspective – commissioned by the People's Commissariat of Communal Economy, he and his son Janusz documented the images of the city destroyed during the assault on Vilnius from July 6 to 13.

Alongside artistic images of Vilnius, the exhibition also displays wartime photographs, testifying to two different faces of the same city – one being created and one being destroyed, full of beauty and marked by loss.

The exhibition at the House of the Signatories (Pilies St. 26, Vilnius) will be open from October 7, 2026, at 5:30 PM until January 6, 2027.

We invite you to visit!

Exhibition organizer: National Museum of Lithuania

Curators: Liveta Repšienė, Jūratė Gudaitė

Architect: Giedrė Narbutienė

Graphic designer: Jurga Karosaitė

Communication coordinator: Aušra Kaminskaitė

Analog photography preparer: Algirdas Juodis

Editor: Marytė Slušinskaitė