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Works by Mikolajus Konstantinas Ciurlionis, an acclaimed Lithuanian artist who died young and poor, are currently on display in Mississauga.

The showing of some of his paintings and photographs at the Lithuanian Museum Archives of Canada (LMAC), located at 2185 Stavebank Rd., celebrates the recent purchase of AB Sanitas, a major Lithuanian pharma company, by Mississauga-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals.

Lithuanian ambassador H.E.Ginte Damusis was on hand for the opening of the exhibit. She noted how Mississauga's diversity echoes the cultural diversity which Ciurlionis experienced in Lithuania during his lifetime (1875-1911).

This year is the 100th anniversary of the artist's death. This exhibit of his work showed first in New York City before travelling to Mississauga.

It would be impossible to show all his work. When Ciurlionis died at age 36, he left more than 400 musical compositions, 200 paintings and numerous photographs. Just some of those paintings and photos and excerpts of his writing — translated into English — can be viewed at the LMAC on Wednesdays from 3-7 p.m. and this Sunday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

The exhibit will close July 22. Admission is free and it's well worth viewing.

Born in 1875 in southern Lithuania, Ciurlionis was a musical prodigy who studied at the Warsaw and Leipzig Conservatories. It wasn't until he was 27 that he showed an interest in art. He was forced to return to Warsaw to study art because the Tsarist Russian state had closed the universities in Lithuania.

By 1907, he had returned home and became involved with the Lithuanian national rebirth movement. Ironically, it was his future wife, Sofija Kymantaite, who taught him to speak Lithuanian. He had spoken only Polish since he was a small child.

The paintings and drawings in the exhibit are small but powerful in the way they use symbols, light and mysticism. His preferred media were watercolours, tempera and pastels.

As well, Ciurlionis became a skilled photographer and graphic artist.

His work was appreciated and applauded by European intellectuals, but Ciurlionis lived and died in obscure poverty, eventually succumbing to pneumonia at the age of 36.

Three years after the 1918 restoration of the Lithuanian state, the national M.K. Ciurlionis Museum was founded in Kaunas to preserve his work. He was acknowledged as an artistic genius who contributed much to Lithuanian art.

Also on hand for the opening of the show was Valeant Canada Vice-President Lorne Markowitz, who announced proudly that he's a first-generation Canadian whose entire family hails from Lithuania, Poland and Russia.

Valeant is one of the fastest growing pharma companies in Canada. It has recently absorbed Biovail and will use the acquisition of AB Sanitas as an entryway into generic pharma expansion in Europe.

By Jan Dean