Josip Diminić
(1937-2019)
Mutual Acceptance, 1974
fiberglass, paint
58.5 x 55 x 21.5 cm
MG-3359

Josip Diminić (1937-2019) graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1963 under Prof. Marino Tartaglia. Between 1984 and 2008 when he retired, he taught sculpture at the Department of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka, which became the Academy of Applied Arts, which Diminić was a co-founder of. He was also a co-founding member of many arts events and exhibitions in Croatia, such as the Mediterranean Sculpture Symposium in Labin and the Montraker International Summer School of Sculpture in Vrsar.
Diminić was most recognised for his coloured organic and anthropomorphic sculptures, which he often translated into the mediums of drawing and graphic art equally successfully. He modelled stylised associative and often erotic sculptures in wood, stone, bronze and coloured plastic. In 1980 he turned to figuration and started modelling ceramic sculptures thematically related to birds of anthropomorphic forms as symbols of freedom. He sculpted monuments and park sculptures mounted in Labin, Rijeka and Karlovac, and published several graphic art folios.
Diminić’s very own abstract expression of typically concise sculptural forms which he reduced to primordial organic symbols is metaphorical in meaning. He modelled sculptures often with erotic associations which he frequently accentuated with colour. Diminić’s abstract Mutual Acceptance sculpture from 1974 is made of fiberglass, a pliable sculptural material that Diminić often worked with.

Text: Tatijana Gareljić, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Ana Janković
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb