Ivo Lozica
(1910 – 1943)
Female Nude, 1938
bronze
51.3 x 31 x 62 cm
MG-1392

Ivo Lozica attended the Stonemasonry School in Korčula from 1923 to 1925, where sculptor Frano Kršinić took note of his talent and referred him to the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he studied sculpture from 1926 to 1930 (mentored by R. Valdec and R. Frangeš-Mihanović), and in 1933 he completed I. Meštrović’s advanced course in sculpture. As a French government scholarship holder, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1933 to 1934. In 1935 he moved to Split and in 1938 he started teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. He collaborated on Meštrović’s projects in Otavice (mausoleum) and Split (studio). He died prematurely in 1943, after having moved to his native Lumbarda on the Island of Korčula.
Ivo Lozica created numerous sculptures that feature prominently in Croatian sculpture of the 20th century. He produced a considerable number of works in stone, bronze, marble, plaster, wood and terracotta. He expressed himself realistically by observing the details and shapes of the human figure. Lozica portrayed the people of his native land, fishermen, sand carriers, women with wineskins, reapers and washerwomen.
Drawing on the Mediterranean sculptural tradition (F. Kršinić), particularly its understanding of light and form, and on his Parisian experiences (A. Maillol, A. Rodin and A. Bourdelle), Lozica created a unique series of intimist, lyrically shaped nudes featuring round volumes and flickering surfaces.
With its conspicuous buxomness and balanced relationship between torpor and dynamism, this reclining female nude in a seated position is a good example of the lyrical-meditative motif. The head is turned towards the left shoulder, while the left hand grasps the left leg that is bent at the knee and raised. The figure’s right hand rests on the edge of a rocky block, just as her right leg clings to the rock. The nude is fused with the pedestal as a dynamic unit of the composition. The balanced voluminous round form of the nude is observed as harmonious from all viewpoints.

Text: Tatijana Gareljić, Museum Counsellor at the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb