Nina Ivančić
Graphic Portfolio “Otklon” (Deviation), 1994
silkscreen on paper
67 x 46 cm
MG-7303

Nina Ivančić (b. 1953) is one of the most distinctive postmodern painters in Croatia. Through a variety of stylistic approaches, her work explores the form, technique, and meaning of painting itself. In her early works, starting in 1977, she developed a deep sensitivity to the material, technique, and visual language of painting, characterized by an analytical-critical approach in which symbols are both subject to erosion and indicative of the emerging postmodern image (B. Majstorović).
She is among the key figures of the New Image movement in Croatian painting. Her solo exhibitions Sun and Nocturnal Idyll in the early 1980s coincided with this artistic shift. Her paintings from this period are spontaneous, non-illusionistic, and rich in color and visual references.
After receiving a Fulbright scholarship for painting (MFA Program in Painting, Columbia University, New York), Ivančić lived and worked in New York from 1986 to 1993. Her later work reflects a more reduced, composed approach, emphasizing minimalism and geometric form.
In the 1990s, she began painting depersonalized motifs of ships and later airplanes—icon-like forms derived from technical manuals. These mechanically precise objects are devoid of narrative and realism, acting as simulations of simulations. Such is the case with Otklon, a portfolio of 14 silkscreen prints where visual expression is stripped of emotion and individuality. The ships appear as objective representations—digitally generated, mechanically imprinted forms that resist expressive interpretation, placed within the wider context of modern iconolatry.
Ivančić graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb (Š. Perić) in 1977 and earned her postgraduate degree in 1979 under Lj. Ivančić and N. Reiser. Since 1999, she has been a professor at the Academy of Arts in Split. She has held over thirty solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows both in Croatia and internationally. Her works are represented in many private and public collections. Ivančić has received multiple awards for her artistic achievements.

Text: Željko Marciuš, Museum Advisor, National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb