The National Museum of Modern Art will kick off its exhibition program in 2024 at the Josip Račić Gallery with the exhibition Frano Missia – With the Centenary of Birth.
Curated by Dalibor Prančević, the exhibition will present to the cultural audience of Zagreb 15 of the artist’s paintings executed in mixed media on canvas or tempera on paper, created between 1956 and 1966 in Split and Paris. Additionally, it will showcase two prints produced in 1980 in New York using the material print technique.
This native of Split completed his studies in painting and stage design in 1973 at Hunter College (New York City University). Twenty years later, he taught descriptive geometry and perspective in the Department of Fine Arts at the same university. He earned his doctorate in 1993 from the Teachers College at Columbia University in New York with a thesis titled Painting the Nude by Male Artists in Western Art. In 2019, the City Museum of Split organised his posthumous exhibition at the Emanuel Vidović Gallery. Additionally, in collaboration with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split, they published an art monograph titled Frano Missia – Itinerant Painter: Chronoscript of an Artistic Journey.
The monograph is penned by Dalibor Prančević, PhD who is also curating this exhibition. Regarding the presentation of the artist’s works at the Josip Račić Gallery, Prančević writes in the accompanying catalogue: (…) The exhibition commemorating the centenary of Frano Missia’s birth showcases his body of work through a sort of dichotomy between abstract and figurative painting approaches, however, not from the perspective of their antagonism but rather their mutual interplay and coexistence. Among the selected works are some of the finest pieces created across various geographical locations, essentially tracing – and sketching – the itinerant life of their rather unconventional creator.

Photo: From the exhibition set up / Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2024