From 31 March to 10 May, the National Museum of Modern Art presents the exhibition …in pursuit of painting by Izvor Pende in the NMMU Octagon. An artist of considerable international standing, Pende trained at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and is presenting his new cycle of paintings publicly for the first time here in Zagreb, the city where he has been living and working in recent years.
The exhibition has been conceived by Branko Franceschi, Director of the National Museum of Modern Art, and Marta Radman, curator of the NMMU Art Collection 1990 – present. It brings together approximately thirty large-format oils on canvas, all created between 2020 and the present day.
In the catalogue essay, Branko Franceschi writes, amongst other things: Izvor Pende has shown that within his creative imagination there exist territories we had neither encountered nor anticipated. It is therefore quite reasonable to assume the existence of unexplored regions that he himself does not fully, or perhaps at all, sense or foresee. This exhibition is one of the waypoints on his enduring, inexhaustible and unattainable pursuit for the Painting.
According to Marte Radman, today his painting occupies not only a space of continuous institutional affirmation but also a space of renewed reading. For a generation formed under conditions of constant visual production, expressiveness and chromatic dominance alone are no longer sufficient reasons for sustained viewing. In the recent cycle, one can see a clear distancing from the logic of “visibility” (…)
The Zagreb exhibition represents the first public and institutional showcase of the latest phase of Izvor Pende’s painterly output, timed to coincide with the period immediately preceding his new international presentation, a solo exhibition conceived by curator Lele Mellinger, opening on 2 June 2026 at the Künstlerverein Malkasten in Düsseldorf. Founded in the mid-19th century, this distinguished arts institution is currently headed by Christoph Westermeier.
The project holds particular significance for the National Museum of Modern Art as well, as it will go down as the first solo exhibition to be held on the first floor of the NMMU Octagon, a space currently undergoing a gradual transformation from a former bank interior into a new exhibition and museum destination in the very centre of Zagreb.
The exhibition has been made possible with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, and is accompanied by a richly produced catalogue in Croatian and English, featuring essays by Branko Franceschi and Marta Radman, photographs by Hrvoje Franić and Boris Berc, and
graphic design by Ana Zubić.

Translated by Robertina Tomić
Reproductions: Izvor Pende, Untitled, 2023 / Untitled, 2025 / Untitled, 2026 / Walk With Me, 2026.
Photo: Hrvoje Franić