Category: Archive-NMMU-in-guests

The National Museum of Modern Art on Tour- Contrasts

The National Museum of Modern Art on Tour
Art Gallery of the City Museum of Križevci, Trg Antuna Nemčića 6/1, Križevci

Exhibition: CONTRASTS
Curator: Željko Marciuš
March 20 – April 12, 2025 / The exhibition has been extended until April 16, 2025.
Opening: March 20, 2025, at 6 PM

The exhibition Contrasts of Construction and Expression is based on twenty works (ten representing construction and ten representing expression) from the collections of the National Museum of Modern Art, with a focus on painting. The concept of contrast embodies the fundamental human division between intellect and emotion, which is then manifested in art. Such divisions are well known in art history (Renaissance – Mannerism; Classicism – Romanticism; Cubism – Expressionism…).

The segment dedicated to construction will explore a progression from Vjekoslav Karas through the Croatian interpretation of Cubism and historical Realism, the Realism of the 1920s, and further to geometric abstraction, Photorealism, and postmodern variations. The broadly understood expressive component spans from the impressions of the 19th century (Vlaho Bukovac) and the early 20th century, through Expressionism—both distant from and close to realistic representation of motifs—coloristic expressions, organic and lyrical abstraction, and extends to the postmodern variations of Zlatan Vrkljan.

A distinctive feature of the exhibition will be the presentation of select construction-expression pairings, allowing viewers to experience the range of artistic function that expresses the extent of emotional and intellectual response.

The exhibition will feature works from (construction) the aforementioned Vjekoslav Karas and Ivan Meštrović, through Miroslav Kraljević, Vilko Gecan, Ivan Picelj, and Raul Goldoni, extending into postmodernism. Expression will be represented by paradigm-shifting artists, from Miroslav Kraljević and Vilko Gecan to various postmodern interpretations.

This will be an intimate yet visually engaging exhibition, accessible to audiences of all ages, offering a unique opportunity to explore the fundamental human division between intellect and emotion in one place.

Željko Marciuš

The exhibition is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the City of Križevci, and the Koprivnica-Križevci County.

Reproductions:
Đuro Seder, Drawing I, II, III, 1969 / charcoal, paper; 3 sheets, individual dimensions: 480 x 360 mm / inv. no. MG-2904
Vlaho Bukovac, Japanese Woman, 1898 / oil on canvas; 41 x 32.5 cm / inv. no. MG-296
Milivoj Uzelac, Self-Portrait in Front of a Bar, 1923 / oil on canvas; 93 x 69 cm / inv. no. MG-1012
Marijan Trepše, In the Tavern (In the Café), 1919 / oil on cardboard; 43.7 x 51.7 cm / inv. no. MG-2161
Vilko Gecan, The Cynic, 1921 / oil on canvas; 110.5 x 99 cm / inv. no. MG-2668
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

The exhibition titled Steps from the NMMU on Tour series on view in the Old City Hall in Split

The exhibition titled Steps, on view in the Old City Hall in Split from 30 November, is part of a series of exhibitions from the NMMU on Tour series. It is curated to showcase a selection of the rich collection of the National Museum of Modern Art in the revitalised and impressive Gothic palace by the director of the National Museum of Modern Art, Branko Franceschi, who has chosen around thirty iconic works by some of the most distinguished names in Croatian art from the late 19th century to the early 1930s, including Ivan Meštrović, Mato Celestin Medović, Vladimir Becić, Ljubo Babić, Jerolim Miše, Dubravko Detoni, Krsto Hegedušić, Vilim Svečnjak, Robert Frangeš Mihanović, Rudolf Valdec, and others.

In the foreword to the accompanying catalogue, Branko Franceschi writes:The enforced hibernation that the National Museum of Modern Art finds itself in since 2022, to allow for a comprehensive renovation of its seat in the Vranyczany Palace in Zagreb, has, through a strategic shift in programming, unexpectedly triggered the museum’s unparalleled national presence to date. With an unprecedented number of loans to other institutions for exhibitions outside its own premises, the NMMU on Tour programme has enabled us to conceive and deliver phenomenological displays of the collection curated by our team, in partner institutions throughout Croatia and abroad. The collaboration with the Split City Museum on an exhibition at the Old City Hall completes the first cycle of the program, launched in 2022 with an ambitious display of 200 artworks titled One World in the Two Palaces museum in Zadar. After relocating the collection to temporary storage in 2023, we successfully planned and organised similar exhibitions this year in the museums of Križevci, Labin, Rijeka, Šibenik, and Dubrovnik. After the Split exhibition, which presents the popular early 20th-century art period in three “steps,” we will showcase its complementary counterpart at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest. The latter exhibition, titled Parallel Lines, will present the full spectrum of Croatian high modernism art from the latter half of the 20th century. The renaming of the Modern Gallery to the National Museum of Modern Art has thus been fully validated, resolving any lingering doubts, even in the minds of the last remaining sceptics, about the name change.

This exhibition is a must-see for any educational institution in our wider region, as it offers a unique in-person learning opportunity about the essence of Croatian artistic expression, from the time when preserving national identity was a primary concern to the period when artists were able to develop within the broader Central European context – said Vesna Bulić Baketić, the director the Split City Museum, as the hosting institution. She added that the combined effort of two major institutions, one local and one national, seeks to bring national artistic and heritage works within reach of audiences who can only satisfy their cultural and artistic needs in their own community, and that Split has demonstrated its ability to host and stage significant exhibitions.
As the National Museum of Modern Art undergoes renovation, this exhibition presents a unique opportunity to celebrate and emphasise the strength of Croatian national artistic expression in the distinctive setting of Split’s Old City Hall.

Reproductions: Bela Čikoš – Sesija: Triumph of Innocence (Decorative panel), 1900 / gixigo, canvas; 90.4 x 290.6 cm / MG-510
Emanuel Vidović: At the City of the Dead, 1919, oil on canvas; 100 x 137.5 cm (with frame: 107 x 143 cm) / MG-579
Mato Celestin Medović: Bacchanal, 1890-1893, oil on canvas; 206.5 x 359.2 cm (with frame: 257 x 16 x 413 cm) / MG-7088
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

The exhibition “Artists on Artists – A Visual Panopticon”

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 and Installation view: Miho Skvrce, Museum of Modern Art, Dubrovnik

Blue – The Favourite Colour
The exhibition from the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art at the Šibenik City Museum

The exhibition Blue – The Favourite Colour, featuring around twenty selected pieces from the National Museum of Modern Art’s collection, will be on view from 24 October to 15 December at the Šibenik City Museum. Part of the NMMA On Tour series, this exhibition is presented in partnership with museums and galleries across Croatia, offering the public a glimpse into the Museum’s collection while its main building, the Vranyczany-Dobrinović Palace, undergoes a full renovation. The exhibition is curated by Dajana Vlaisavljević, NMMA museum consultant, who aims to explore various artistic interpretations of the colour blue through these works.
Blue is the colour of the sky, the night, the sea... and these natural associations impart it with a sense of infinity, thus introspection. It is also the most frequently used colour for military and other official uniforms, a tradition that stems from royal ceremonial dress. The museum painting Portrait of Dr. Ivo Malina by Vlaho Bukovac from 1899 is a fine example of this practice.
The colour blue has a long and contradictory history. As the visual fact par excellence, it has been attributed various symbolic meanings, some of which have persisted in the modern human consciousness and the subconscious. Thus, interpreting artworks must take into account socio-anthropological factors, which are deeply woven into human perception. However, the perceptions of blue have shifted throughout history – ancient man conceptualised it quite differently from those in the medieval era or the Romantic period. It is interesting to observe that blue was previously deemed a warm colour, and the ancient Greeks, for instance, regarded it as unattractive. The ascent of blue started in the Middle Ages, becoming associated with the Virgin Mary, who was typically depicted wrapped in a blue cloak symbolising celestial purity. In this regard, blue has traditionally been viewed as a “feminine” colour, while red has been perceived as “masculine,” representing the blood spilt during military campaigns. The National Museum of Modern Art’s collection includes several works (e.g., by Nicola Consoni) that still reflect this iconographic moment. In terms of melancholic emotion, blue experienced its peak popularity during the Romantic era, and this sentiment has persisted into modern times. In visual arts, blue is most commonly associated with artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc (Der Blaue Reiter), who were fascinated by the colour, as well as with Yves Klein’s distinctive use of blue.
Drawing on the history of European painting, this project examines the role of blue in Croatian visual art from the 19th century to present day. It explores whether artists consciously incorporate its symbolic meanings or merely use it as a visual feature, as well as which artists tend to employ it for symbolic purposes versus those who are simply fascinated by its chromatic attributes.

Artists: Anton (Toni) Aron (1859–1920), Ljubo Babić (1890-1974), Menci Clement Crnčić (1865-1930), Josip Diminić (1937-2019), Oton Iveković (1869-1939), Ignjat Job (1895-1936), Vjekoslav Karas (1821-1858), Ljubo de Karina (1948), Zlatko Keser (1942), Miroslav Kraljević (1885.-1913), Zvonimir Lončarić (1927.-2004), Nikola Mašić (1852 – 1902), Albert Mosè (1835-1903), Marijana Muljević (1948.), Josip Račić (1885 - 1908), Ivo Režek (1898-1979), Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947), Rudolf Sablić (1916-2012), Marino Tartaglia (1894-1984), Milivoj Uzelac (1897-1977), Emanuel Vidović (1870-1953)

Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Images: Miroslav Kraljević (1885-1913): Getting Dressed (Woman in Blue Stockings), 1912 / oil on canvas, 62.2x50.3cm / MG-773
62,2x50,3cm / MG-773
Emanuel Vidović (1870 – 1953): From the Lagoon, c. 1909 / oil on canvas, 63x95cm / MG-6715
Josip Račić (1885 – 1908): In Front of the Mirror, 1908 / oil on canvas, 100x58.3cm / MG-2391
(cover photo)
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Sea Breeze – Nudes from the NMMA Collection
Artmark Gallery

Concept: Branko Franceschi
Curators: Tatijana Gareljić, Željko Marciuš

The aim of the exhibition titled Sea Breeze, featuring a selection of nudes from the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art (NMMA), is to evoke the freshness of the seaside in the sweltering urban environment of the continent. Beaches provide a setting where we experience liberation from the constraints of clothing, and the body becomes exposed to everyone’s gaze. Such corporeality, once proscribed by traditional moral canons, is now widely embraced in the modern era. Prior to this, in Western civilisation after Antiquity, the culture of the body was tolerated and practiced only in art studios for the purposes of practice or the creation of artworks intended for the intimate atmosphere of bedchambers or heroic historical compositions.
The exhibition encompasses works created from 1907 to the present, executed in the mediums of oil on canvas, bronze and marble, and black-and-white photography. With two exceptions, the exhibition is arranged chronologically, and like the two previous exhibitions of artworks from the NMMA collection at the Artmark Gallery, it is designed to showcase the richness and diversity of national artistic production and the museum’s collection. The first chronological deviation is the placement of the painting The Time (is Now) by Robert Auer from 1925 among artworks executed in the previous decade, due to the combination of anachronistic visuality and the stylisation of the model in accordance with the fashion and decadent sensuality of times of its execution. The second deviation is the placement of the photograph Emil and Eva by Sandra Vitaljić from 1999 in the Gallery corridor, which contextualises the exhibition theme within the visual discourse close to contemporary everyday mass media communication.
The selection of artworks represents the rapid evolution of interpreting the motif of the human body during the twentieth century. It begins with academic studies of the nude, predominantly female, imbued with varying degrees of sensuality, leaning towards verism in the early 20th century. Progressing through liberated forms inspired by Cubist and Expressionist explorations in the interwar years, it evolves into portrayals of existential angst and neoclassical tendencies in the post-World War II period. Besides reinterpreting the motif of Adam and Eve as the only permissible nude in the Middle Ages, the aforementioned photograph by Sandra Vitaljić represents an affirmation of the female gaze in contrast to the entire history dominated by the male gaze, particularly concerning the theme of the nude, as a pivotal change in the visual culture of the twentieth century.

Artists: Bela Čikoš Sesija, Ivan Meštrović, Ivan Tišov, Juraj Škarpa, Miroslav Kraljević, Petar Dobrović, Robert Auer, Robert Frangeš Mihanović, Vladimir Becić, Vlaho Bukovac, Frane Cota, Ivo Kerdić, Ivo Režek, Jozo Turkalj, Marijan Trepše, Marino Tartaglia, Mila Wod, Milivoj Uzelac, Omer Mujadžić, Sava Šumanović, Frano Kršinić, Kosta Angeli Radovani, Ljubo Ivančić, Raul Goldoni, Slavko Kopač, Slavko Šohaj, Vjekoslav Rukljač, Željko Hegedušić, Ivan Sabolić, Josip Klarica, Sandra Vitaljić

Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

The exhibition Otherness from the National Museum of Modern Art’s holdings at the Kortil Gallery in Rijeka

The exhibition Otherness https://hkd- rijeka.hr/dogadanja/drugost-izlozba-iz-zbirke-nacionalnog-muzeja-moderne-umjenosti/ according to author's conception of NMMU curator Marta Radman, from June 12 to September 14, will be presented to the Rijeka cultural public at the Kortil Gallery. The exhibition will show thirty selected works from the holdings of the National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb in different media (painting, sculpture, photography, video and art installation). On this occasion attempts will be made to challenge the dominant discourse and offer space to art and authors who have historically been marginalized, encouraging more inclusive a dialogue about the complexity of identity, (re)presentation and power dynamics in the world of art. Through the selection of our leading authors, the exhibition deals with the concept of otherness, offering a new perspective and some of the possible readings of the exhibited works created in the period from the second half of the 19th century until today, exposing and reading social preconditions, self-censorship of artists, and the importance of gender and sexual identity in creative expression, through the issues of feminism, decolonization, and gender and LGBTQI+ theory.
Kortil Gallery organizes this exhibition, which will among others, include the works of Miroslav Kraljević, Vlaho Bukovac, Milivoj Uzelc, Vera Fischer, Josip Račić, Vlasta Delimar, Nasta Rojc and Ksenia Kantoci, in collaboration with the National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb (which, due to the complete reconstruction of the Vranyczany-Dobrinović Palace after the 2020 earthquake, closed until 2026).

On the occasion of the closing of the exhibition, on September 9 at 8 p.m., a play by actress Vesna Stilinović and performer Vlasta Delimar entitled "According to dignity (aging)" will be performed on the stage of the HKD.

 

Photo: Tanja Kanzir

Exhibition Dubravka Lošić, The Silkworm’s Cocoon (Punćela)
collaboration between the Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum of Modern Art

DUBRAVKA LOŠIĆ
The Silkworm’s Cocoon (Punćela)
Opening: 8 June at 12 p.m.
Exhibition curator: Branko Franceschi
The exhibition titled Punćela presents Dubravka Lošić’s unique position as a visual artist who blends the traditional concept of easel painting with contemporary creative practices such as installation, assemblage, and the use of unconventional materials. Dubravka Lošić’s distinctive style was shaped during the 1980s, her formative years, and a time marked by a significant expansion in the visual arts toward greater freedom of content, form, and the contamination of disciplines, a creative paradigm established by the theory and practice of post-modernist aesthetics and artistic practice.

Alongside portraits painted between 2004 and 2012, the exhibition also features a selection from the cycles: Imago anima (2012–2013), Sharks (1986–2013), Dream Catchers (2015), Lapad (2016), Rain Paris (2018), Wind Catchers (2018), Alba Albula (2019), as well as a selection from the recent cycle Tondo (2020–2022).

The title Punćela, meaning “silkworm’s cocoon” in the Konavle dialect, was selected as the poetic framework for this presentation. This diverse selection is unified by the artist’s tendency to conceal the initial motif of the composition, which over the years and through various metamorphoses traced by the exhibition, has developed like a butterfly from a larva into a self-sufficient aesthetic fact that summarises all the artist’s visual and existential experiences. (from the essay by Branko Franceschi)

The exhibition layout, conceived by Dubravka Lošić and Branko Franceschi, is envisioned as a series of interconnected ambient situations, aligning optimally with the exhibition galleries and the reference cycles.

Dubravka Lošić was educated in the mid-1980s under the traditional curriculum of the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts, in the class of Professor Ferdinand Kulmer. Her immersion in contemporary art developments was immediately apparent, and the painting-object, in greater or lesser degrees, has remained a focal area of her practice, whether in the narrowly understood visual arts or in the scenographic oeuvre derived from it. Following an established pattern, an artistic personality develops within general parameters by incorporating accumulated personal experiences and an individual perception of the world, shaped by a combination of cultural and environmental influences. The Split exhibition features a selection from Dubravka Lošić’s oeuvre, affirming her as a unique and incomparable artist within the Croatian art scene. She lives and works in Dubrovnik.

The exhibition remains open until 28 July 2024.
The exhibition was realised through collaboration between the Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum of Modern Art.
The exhibition has been made possible with financial support of the City of Split and the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.

Images: Dubravka Lošić, Tondo, foto Veronica Arevalo / Dubravka Lošić, Alba Abula, foto Veronica Arevalo / Dubravka Lošić, Lovci na vjetar, foto Damir Fabijanić / Dubravka Lošić, Pariz (detalj), foto Damir Fabijanić / Dubravka Lošić, morske psine, foto Damir Fabijanić

https://www.galum.hr/izlozbe/izlozba/1798/

Joško Eterović, Secundum minimum
exhibition organised in collaboration between Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka and National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb

     

Joško Eterović:
Secundum minimum
26 March 2024 – 2 June 2024

The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the National Museum of Modern Art are organizing a comprehensive monographic exhibition celebrating Joško Eterović, one of the most renowned artists of Rijeka and Croatia.
Nearly twenty years since his last exhibition at the MMSU (From a Disrupted Line to Mutations 1970 – 2006), Joško Eterović returns with Secundum minimum, the exhibition that will debut his latest series of paintings, created between 2019 and 2024. Secundum minimum marks Eterović's return to the aesthetics of minimalism and optical art. However, to provide context within this expansive body of work, along with his recent works, the exhibition features an introductory section showing pieces where he periodically expressed an inclination towards reductionism. The compositions center around the interplay of basic geometric shapes, such as circles and ellipses, and they are dynamized with sophisticated mid-tones of complementary colors. The painting concept emphasizes the influence and legacy of optical art reduced to a minimalist interaction of three elements: color, line and shape. The precision and clarity of Eterović's new works, grounded in the interaction of color planes, forms and optical interplay, reflect a sustained and authentic artistic curiosity and consistency of an artistic research that has persisted over fifty years, transcending the shifting artistic trends. Amidst the prevalence of digital media in visual culture and the prominence of figurative painting in visual arts, Eterović’s post-minimalist and neo-geometric constellations represent a new momentum and reaffirm the relevance of neo-constructivism in contemporary art and culture.

The exhibition opens on Tuesday, 26 March, at 7 p.m. and will continue until 2 June, encompassing all exhibition spaces in the Museum. The exhibition is curated by Branko Franceschi, the NMMU director.
The exhibition is funded by the City of Rijeka, the Croatian Ministry of Culture, Primorsko - Goranska county and City Office for Culture, International
Relations and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb.

Images: (1)  Joško Eterović's Secundum minimum exhibition poster at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka  (2,3,4) works by Joško Eterović from the Secundum minimum series, 2022 - 2023 / acrylic on canvas / Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

National Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “Revealed Otherness” at the Art Gallery of the City Museum in Križevci

“Revealed Otherness” is the title of the National Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition in the Art Gallery of the City Museum in Križevci. It is one in a series of NMMA’s visiting exhibitions, which the Museum will organise in collaboration with other museum and gallery institutions in Croatia and beyond until the completion of the comprehensive renovation of its headquarters, the Vranyczany-Dobrinović Palace.
Conceived by the NMMA curator Marta Radman, the exhibition features 26 selected works from the collections of the National Museum of Modern Art and the City Museum of Križevci, encompassing paintings, sculptures, photography, photocollage, installations, tapestries, and objects.
Artists featured in the exhibition include: NMMA: Miroslav Kraljević, Goranka Vrus Murtić, Ivan Sabolić, Anabel Zanze, Oscar Nemon, Valerije Michieli, Zvonimir Lončarić, Vera Fischer, Dimitrije Popović, Milivoj Uzelac, Sava Šumanović, Nives Kavurić – Kurtović, Oskar Herman, Neda Miranda Blažević – Krietzman, Ana Opalić, Sonja Kovačić – Tajčević, Anka Krizmanić, Vlasta Delimar, Renata Vranyczany Azinović, Ivan Kožarić, Milena Lah, Žanić Vlasta. CMK: Jelka Struppi-Wolkensperg, Nasta Rojc, Paula Kiepach-Nestoroff, Peppino Wieternik.

The exhibition, which can be viewed at the Art Gallery in Križevci until 16 March, is accompanied by a text by Marta Radman, who writes: “(...) In shaping the narrative for this exhibition, the aim is to avoid sensationalist exaggeration of meaning or attribution of importance where it does not exist. The intention is to offer some of the possible interpretations of the presented works. Our perception is shaped by what we have learned to recognise, so it is crucial to constantly question and broaden our perspective. By doing so, we can discover alternative interpretations that enrich our understanding of art within different cultural frameworks, surpassing mere aesthetic appreciation. By updating historical fragments of otherness, the exhibition challenges the limitations imposed by the modernist paradigm of art history and calls for critical reflection. The aim is to present the phenomenon of otherness within the cultural production represented in the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art, starting from the second half of the 19th century onwards. By presenting 22 works from the NMMA Collection alongside four works from the CMK Collection, we uncover and examine the social preconditions, self-censorship of artists, and the significance of gender and sexual identity in creative expression, addressing feminist issues, decolonization, and gender and LGBTQI+ theories. (…)

Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Magical Landscapes – selected works from the holdings of the National Museum of Modern Art at the Artmark gallery

With the exhibition Magical Landscapes at the Artmark Gallery, the National Museum of Modern Art continues its collaboration with the Romanian auction house Artmark. Artmark’s gallery activities in Croatia began in the summer of 2023 with the presentation of 26 iconic works from the NMMA collection at the exhibition Summer Prelude. The selected works, displayed in chronological order, showcased the development of Croatian modern art from the academic period in the late 19th century to the high modernism of the 1960s.

The exhibition Magical Landscapes is also based on the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art and presents the chronological development of the landscape genre within the scope of the Museum’s collection. Twenty-six paintings chosen for the display – created between 1856 and 1980, that is, from Hugo Conrad von Hötzendorf to Boris Dogan – were selected by the museum consultants Lada Bošnjak Velagić, head of the Collection of 20th-century painting from 1918 to 1945, and Željko Marciuš, head of the Collection of painting from 1945. They jointly curate this guest project for the NMMA. The Zagreb cultural audience will have the opportunity to visit the exhibition at the Artmark Gallery from 24 January to 25 February.

Artists: Oton Iveković, Hugo Conrad von Hötzendorf, Ferdo Kovačević, Mato Celestin Medović, Gabriel Jurkić, Ignjat Job, Vladimir Becić, Emanuel Vidović, Karlo Mijić, Jerolim Miše, Oton Postružnik, Sava Šumanović, Vladimir Varlaj, Petar Dobrović, Ljubo Babić, Milivoj Uzelac, Marijan Trepše, Zlatko Prica, Frano Šimunović, Oton Gliha, Boris Dogan, Zlatko Keser, Slavko Kopač, Ivan Rabuzin, Oskar Herman

Reproduction: Oskar Herman, Landscape with Three Trees, 1963/ oil on canvas / MG-2531 / Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb