From 5 to 29 May, the National Museum of Modern Art, at the Josip Račić Gallery, presents the exhibition Vesna Parun’s Poetic Scalpel on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the writer and poet Vesna Parun’s birth. The exhibition was conceived during the research conducted in the Croatian State Archives, which, in addition to documents on Vesna Parun’s painting, also contains texts that she wrote about visual artists. It was inspired by the invitation to the opening of Nives Kavurić - Kurtović’s exhibition at the Matijaš Gallery in Samobor in 1986, which said that Vesna Parun will open the exhibition with her poetic scalpel – that is, a short recital. This is how museologist Žarka Vujić, PhD chose the title for the exhibition dedicated to one of the most important contemporary Croatian poets.
The author of the exhibition, Žarka Vujić, PhD decided to showcase the works from the National Museum of Modern Art’s collection, such as the Little Donkey by Vesna Parun, a work on paper in tempera technique, dated in the period between 1970 and 1993, print and poetry portfolios, Dream Reader from 1983, Silent Poem from 1986 and Magdica from 1981, created in collaboration with graphic artist Zdenka Pozaić and photographer Zlata Vucelić, then Nives Kavurić - Kurtović’s monumental canvas With My Soul Laid Bare I Witness the Trace of Existence from 1986, Vatroslav Kuliš’s oil paintings from the series Kornati, which was exhibited in the Sebastijan Gallery in Dubrovnik and Šibenik in 1996 which Parun wrote about, and the portrait Vesna Parun in Tram No. 11 from the holdings of the Prigorje Museum by Zlata Vucelić, the photographer who has documented the life of the famous poet with her camera for more than a decade.
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Image: From the graphic - poetic folder Reader of Dreams, 1983.
Zdenka Pozaić; Vesna Parun
43 x 32.5 cm
NMMU, MG-8277
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Modern Arts, Zagreb, 2022