Exhibition "Under the Sign of the Night Heron: the Library of Counts Kossakowski“

M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art (V. Putvinskio str. 55, Kaunas)

Exhibition "Under the Sign of the Night Heron: the Library of Counts Kossakowski“.

The fruitful interinstitutional cooperation among the personnel of Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) library and M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, led to the idea of introducing the rich library of Counts Kossakowski to public. The exposition visitors will be able to see such extraordinary exhibits as Kossakowski family tree on silk, the manuscript register of photographs, books, stamps, photographs and films, created by KTU personnel, featuring Kossakowscy sketches, drawings and scrapbooks. 

The exhibition was mysteriously named “Under the Sign of Night Heron”, because of Kossakowscys’ belonging to noble heraldic “Night Heron” family, whose coat of arms depicts a bird, holding a ring in a beak, standing on a cross which emerges from a horseshoe. The sign of the Coat of Arms was incorporated into the exlibris and stamp, using it to mark valuable library books. They referred to the owner of the book and their affiliation to one of their owned libraries in Vaitkuškis, Lyduokiai, and Warsaw.

During the last decade, Lithuanian and Polish cultural institutions reminds us about the rich manuscript, documentary, cartographic, bibliophilic and photographic heritage of Counts Kossakowski – through various exhibitions, solid publications, conferences and other means. M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art stores even 65 photo albums of Counts Kossakowski. In the beginning of 2019, the album-catalog “Stanisław Kazimierz Kossakowski. I Love Photography” was released. It features more than 150 photographs, stored in the museum. During the opening of the exhibition, the Lithuanian society will be able to get acquainted with this publication. 

The exhibition will run from May 16th to August 25th, 2019