
Antun Augustinčić
(1900 – 1979)
Drunkards, 1935
casting, bronze
13 x 10 x 8 cm
MG-2501
Augustinčić began studying sculpture at the Advanced School of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb in 1918 under Rudolf Valdec and Robert Frangeš. In 1922, after the institution was renamed the Royal Academy of Arts and Crafts, he continued his education under Ivan Meštrović. After graduating in 1924, he went to Paris as a French government scholarship recipient, studying at the École des Arts Décoratifs and the Académie des Beaux-Arts under J. A. Injalbert. He exhibited at the Salon of French Artists in 1925 and at the Salon des Indépendants in 1926. He was a co-founder of the socially engaged art group Zemlja (1929–1935) and became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1946.
From the 1930s onward, the artist’s realistic style, characterised by the free and restless modelling of original ideas, along with the dramatic movement and expressiveness, is clearly evident in the figurative composition of the Drunkards. Through dynamic diagonals and curves, the mass of the sculpture is expertly set in motion, while the indentations and protrusions that define the shapes give the surface a lively, suggestive quality. The composition as a whole is almost on the verge of instability, perfectly aligning with the subject and theme (the drunken gendarme and the obese tax collector personify the reactionary regime). The emphasis on certain details (gaping mouths, eye sockets...) creates a caricatured expressiveness that highlights the social critique.
Text: Tatijana Gareljić, museum advisor of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb