Commemorative European Art Events 2026
The Rogatchi Foundation is pleased to announce a special art donation by Michael and Inna Rogatchi and The Rogatchi Foundation to the Zarasai County Museum/ Krastiecu Museum , Lithuania, in memory of Yehuda Pen, outstanding artist and teacher of Marc Chagall and more than twenty world-famous artists , many of them belonging to the School of Paris.
Yehuda Pen was born in Zarasai and spent his childhood and youth years there. In his native place, his outstanding visual talent started to blossom. Becoming an important and very well known artist, Yehuda Pen has never forgotten his native city and always expressed his warm feelings towards the place of his birth and young years, and the place of his family.
He became not only a highly reputed master of arts, but also an outstanding teacher who has been exceptionally devoted to his students, among whom were Marc Chagall, Osip Zadkin, El Lisitsky and many others. Marc Chagall, in his own words, has treated Yehuda Pen as ‘my own father’.
The 83-year old artist was brutally murdered in Vitebsk in 1937, with conflicting and shadowed circumstances of this crime until this day. Only a quarter of an exceptionally large collection of his works survived the turmoils of the Second World War in Belorussia, where Yehuda Pen’s legacy is presented at two large state collections today. Some of the artist’s works are dispersed among the collectors in the USA and Israel.
Yehuda Pen was a fantastic artist and very devoted person, to art and to his pupils. His whole life was in those two dimensions. His legacy includes not only still rich collection of his highly accomplished and masterly paintings, but also his input and vision transmitted by Pen to his students, who has become the pride of the art of the XX century, such as Chagall, Zadkin, Lisitsky, Judovin and many others.
With years and decades passing, the name and role of Yehuda Pen has faded, sadly. But in the opinion of Michael and Inna Rogatchi and The Rogatchi Foundation, Yehuda Pen and his role in art and culture of the XX century should not be forgotten. And we appreciate and are grateful to the Zarasai County Museum in Lithuania for their consistent efforts to maintain the Yehuda Pen’s legacy at the place of his birth.
Two donated original works, one by Michael and one by Inna Rogatchi, are homages to Yehuda Pen. Michael’s work, Swallow Waltz ( 2025 ), from his Alone But Not Lonely series, is a lyrical interpretation of memories of one’s home , in this case, of Yehuda Pen who has kept cordial feelings and warm memories and a heart-thread towards the place where his family lived and where he was born.
Michael Rogatchi ©. Swallow Waltz. Alone But Not Lonely. Indian ink, oil pastel on yellow hand-made cotton paper. 35 x 50 cm. 2025. Zarasai County Museum, Lithuania. Donation by the artist in memory of Yehuda Pen. 2026.
Inna Rogatchi’s work, Memories I ( 2025), from her Songs of Our Souls series, reflects on Yehuda Pen’s very difficult life, especially after the revolution and in his late years , his tragic and cruel death, and the dramatic destiny of three quarters of his artistic legacy.
Inna Rogatchi ©. Memories I. Songs of Our Souls. Pigments, watercolour, oil pastel, wax pastel, Luminance Caran d’Ache on authored original print on cotton paper. 30 x 40 cm. 2025. Zarasai County Museum, Lithuania. Donation by the artist in memory of Yehuda Pen. 2026.
Michael and Inna Rogatchi donated original artworks which will become the part of the permanent exposition at the Zarasai County Museum in Lithuania will be on display at the museum’s room dedicated to Yehuda Pen, from October 2026 onward. “ The artistic homages of Michael and Inna Rogatchi to Yehuda Pen will be exhibited in the Yehuda pen room of the museum as the part and the way of the artistic and humane dialogue” – according to the Zarasai County Museum.
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Michael and Inna Rogatchi Shtetl Songs 25-work exhibition is on display at the Zarasai County Museum from April 1st through May 10th, 2026.
In April 2026, the exhibition became the background for the Lithuanian Culture Council From Exposures to Experience seminar for art professionals.
Lithuanian Culture Council seminar at the Shtetl Songs exhibition. The director of the Zarasai Country Museum Arvydas Veikstra is addressing the participants. © Zarasai County Museum. April 2026.
As part of the seminar, Michael and Inna Rogatchi artworks were studied as the subject matter for visual thinking strategy.
Participants of the museum educators professionals are studying Michael Rogatchi artworks at the exhibition. Zarasai County Museum, Lithuania. April 2026. Photo credit © Zarasai County Museum.
The Rogatchi Foundation is glad to continue our fruitful cooperation with the Zarasai County Museum in Lithuania.
Contact & Information: office@rogatchifoundation.org