The exhibition “Artists on Artists – A Visual Panopticon,” organised by the Museum of Modern Art in Dubrovnik (https://www.ugdubrovnik.hr/?file=naslovna) and the National Museum of Modern Art from Zagreb, will open on Thursday, 19 December at 5 PM at the Museum of Modern Art in Dubrovnik.
The exhibition showcases approximately eighty portraits in which artists depict their peers in the mediums of painting, sculpture, graphic art, and photography. It highlights the complexity of the relationship between the portraitist and the subject, as well as the interplay between artists and the wider cultural and social milieu. Curated by Lada Bošnjak Velagić, a museum advisor at the National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb, the selection of major works is based on the NMMU collection, with several pieces loaned from private collections. This exhibition was initially presented at the National Museum of Modern Art in 2022, and it will be further enriched at the Museum of Modern Art in Dubrovnik with works from MoMAD’s own collection, selected by museum advisor Rozana Vojvoda.
The exhibition explores the complexity of relationships among artists within a broader cultural and social framework, “portraying” our art scene from the late 19th century to the present day. It presents visitors with the personal, collaborative, mentoring, patronage, and other connections that have defined key figures in our visual arts during this period. For instance, the mutual portraits of Vlaho Bukovac and Bela Čikoš Sesija, as well as Bukovac’s portrait of Mirko Rački, explore the mentoring, friendship, and collegial bonds between these artists, alongside the influence of Izidor Kršnjav, the division within the Society of Arts, and the emergence of Croatian modern art in 1898.
The exhibition features a range of artists both as portraitists and subjects (Stanoje Jovanović as Šulentić’s “Man with a Red Beard”, Ivo Dulčić, Marta Ehrlich, Ksenija Kantoci, Krsto Hegedušić, Nino Vranić…), with particularly engaging combinations of self-portraits alongside portraits of fellow artists, such as Milivoj Uzelac with Vilko Gecan or Matko Trebotić with Joseph Beuys. A more personal section of the exhibition presents numerous portraits dedicated to married couples (e.g., Ruža Klein and Ivan Meštrović, Nasta Rojc and Branko Šenoa, Marta Ehrlich and Kamilo Tompa, Mila Kumbatović and Oton Gliha, Lujza Kuzmić and Karlo Mijić, Vesna Sokolić and Milan Berbuč).
The exhibition will remain open until 9 March 2025.

Reproductions: Vlaho Bukovac, Portrait of Bela Čikoš in the Studio, 1896, Vugrinec Collection
Zlatko Šulentić, Man with a Red Beard, 1916, NMMU Collection
Ivo Dulčić, Portrait of Antun Masle, 1965, NMMU Collection
Opening photograph: Miroslav Kraljević, Portrait of the Painter Benković, 1912, NMMU Collection
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb