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The Rogatchi Foundation is pleased to announce a special art donation by Michael <\/a> and Inna<\/a> Rogatchi and The Rogatchi Foundation to the Zarasai County Museum\/ Krastiecu Museum<\/a> , 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u2018my own father\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s legacy is presented at two large state collections today. Some of the artist\u2019s works are dispersed among the collectors in the USA and Israel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s legacy at the place of his birth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Two donated original works, one by Michael and one by Inna Rogatchi, are homages to Yehuda Pen. Michael\u2019s work, Swallow Waltz ( 2025 ), from his Alone But Not Lonely<\/a> series, is a lyrical interpretation of memories of one\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Rogatchi \u00a9. 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. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Inna Rogatchi\u2019s work, Memories I ( 2025), from her Songs of Our Souls<\/a> series, reflects on Yehuda Pen\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Inna Rogatchi \u00a9. Memories I. Songs of Our Souls. Pigments, watercolour, oil pastel, wax pastel, Luminance Caran d\u2019Ache 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. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s room dedicated to Yehuda Pen, from October 2026 onward. \u201c 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\u201d – according to the Zarasai County Museum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n * * * <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rogatchifoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-3-1024x864.png\")
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