Valerije Michieli
(1922-1981)
Unrest in a Karren, 1972
bronze
48, 2x 59 x 36 cm
MG-3008

Valerije Michieli graduated in 1949 under Prof. Frano Kršinić from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he taught between 1962 and 1981. He worked as an associate at sculptor Vanja Radauš’s master workshop (1949-1951) and at that of sculptor Frano Kršinić (1951-1955).

In his portraits Michieli worked on and with the concept of full volume, after which he explored the possibilities of eroded form. As an avant-garde sculptor, he worked on elongated expressionist figures close to the Gothic style and related currents in modern sculpture (Alberto Giacometti). His series of contorted bodies express human drama, particularly those sculptures whose theme relates to World War II. Executed in a sculptural and painterly manner, the animals in his series of dogs and horses range from extremely expressionist to non-figurative. Michieli authored memorial monuments in Pučišća on the Island of Brač and Split, and the figure of A Woman from Brač in the town of Bol.

Inspired by the relief characteristics of furrowed, cracked, corroded, jagged and time-worn limestone karst of the Island of Brač, Michieli sculpted a series of bronze sculptures of people and animals, dogs in particular, featuring pronounced naturalistic deformations under the

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