From Imagination to Animation – Six Decades of Zagreb Film

Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

January 30, 2020 – October 31, 2020

For historians and critics of animation, the term Zagreb School of Animated Film is referring to the group of animators who worked in the Zagreb Film’s Studio for Animated Film, using the technique of cel animation, but with every one of them having their unique style and vision. It was not long after the founding of the Studio in 1956 that the international success came. Vatroslav Mimica was awarded the Venice Grand Prix for his 1958 animated short filmThe Loner, and in 1962 Dušan Vukotić became the first non-American Oscar winner for his animated short The Substitute. Zagreb Film also produced four animated shows: Hound for Hire, Inspector Mask, Professor Balthazar, and The Little Flying Bears.

Building on that reputation, Zagreb has become recognizable for its long tradition of animation, and every year since 1972 is hosting Animafest Zagreb, one of the four biggest festivals of animated film in the world.

To learn more, visit the Museum of Contemporary Art, which has put together the most extensive exhibition on the Zagreb and Croatian animation to date, presenting more than 200 animated films, many original drawings, archival materials, and objects.

(Ivona Marić)

Reflections of Bauhaus: the Academy of Applied Arts in Zagreb, 1949-1955

Klovićevi Dvori Gallery in Zagreb

October 22, 2019 – January 12, 2020

In celebration of the founding of Bauhaus (1919 – 1920), Klovićevi Dvori Gallery is presenting works created by artists who graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in Zagreb. The short-lived Academy spurred only two generations of artists but made an impermeable mark on Croatian modern art. Its revolutionary curriculum which cultivated experimentation with materials and technology echoed the spirit of the famous German art school.

The Academy of Applied Arts was founded 70 years ago, but the reason why it was closed will probably never be known. It is speculated that the financial difficulties and even rivalry with the competing Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb contributed greatly to its dissolution. Since the paper trail is scarce and with almost none of the student works left, this exhibition is focused on bringing forth the originality in expression, and versatility of artists educated on the Academy, who through their work continued to spread the ideas and influence of the Academy long after its dissolution.

(Ivona Marić)

King Saul being greeted in triumph after David's defeat of Goliath by Renaissance painter and etcher Andrea Schiavone

Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb

Painting King Saul being greeted in triumph after David''s defeat of Goliath by Renaissance painter and etcher Andrea Schiavone sold in December 2018 at Christie’s Old Masters Day Sale, is on view at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb from February 2019.

The painting, oil on panel (92.5 x 109.8 cm.) was always a part of different private collections, so it was never on display for the general public. It has an interesting provenance: among prominent owners, one of the last ones was H.R.H. Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (1893-1976). This time it was again bought by a private collector - a Croatian and British citizen who loaned it to the Museum of Arts and Crafts.

Andrea Schiavone, or Andrea Meldolla (Andrija Medulić in Croatian), was born in Zadar, present-day Croatia, in c. 1510 and died in Venice in 1563.

(Maja Kocijan)

Vlaho Bukovac and Alexandre Cabanel – a historic encounter of pupil and teacher

Art Pavilion in Zagreb

October 3, 2018 – January 6, 2019

Vlaho Bukovac (1855 – 1922) was the most distinguished Croatian painter at the turn of the 20th century. He is credited for the initiative to open the Art Pavilion in Zagreb with the main purpose to host large-scale exhibitions. So in celebration of the 120th anniversary of its foundation, the Art Pavilion will showcase the works of Bukovac together with that of his teacher of painting in Paris at the École des beaux-arts, Alexandre Cabanel (1823 – 1889).

Following the earlier exhibition, ‘Vlaho Bukovac in Paris’ held at the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery in Zagreb (January 18, 2018 - March 11, 2018), the exhibition at the Art Pavilion will focus on presenting Cabanel’s influence on Bukovac’s painting featuring more than 140 works of art.

As a painter, Cabanel is probably best known for ‘The Birth of Venus’ (1863, Musée d’Orsay in Paris), a notable example of 19th-century academic painting, bought by Napoleon III. Young Bukovac was eager to enroll in Cabanel’s class which had already been filled up. Thanks to the small painting he then executed titled ‘Hand’ (1877, Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik), Bukovac was nonetheless admitted. He studied at the École des beaux-arts from 1877 until 1880 and also exhibited with great success at the Paris Salon.

Cabanel’s paintings which have never before been exhibited in Croatia are lent by the Petit Palais - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, the Musée Inguimbertine, Carpentras, the Palais de Compiègne - Musée et domaine nationaux, Compiègne, the Musée Fabre, Montpellier (the Art Pavilion’s partner for the exhibition, since Montpellier was Cabanel’s hometown) and by the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. On the other hand, Bukovac’s works will come from Croatian museums (such as the Modern Gallery, Zagreb, the Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik and Konavle County Museum - House Bukovac, Cavtat) as well as from museums from Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia. Furthermore, some of his rarely exhibited paintings come from private collections.

Exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog with textual contribution made by Igor Zidić, art historian and expert in Bukovac’s work, Pierre Stépanoff, manager of the Collection of Paintings from the 14th to the 19th century in the Musée Fabre, and by Michel Hilaire, the Musée Fabre director and the leading French expert in the oeuvre of Alexandre Cabanel.

(Ivona Marić)