Tag: 1973

Belizar Bahorić, Split Time,1973

Belizar Bahorić
(1920 - 2002)
Split Time, 1973
bronze
47 x 20 x 47cm
MG-3315

Belizar Bahorić expressed an interest in art as a student at the School of Crafts in Zagreb, which was then headed by the academic sculptor Vojta Braniš, who revived and reformed the school curriculum in the spirit of European trends. In 1940, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb to study sculpture, which he was forced to abandon after the war started, having just completed his first year. He actively participated in the National Liberation Struggle, and he also spent some time in captivity. After the war, he continued to study sculpture and graduated in 1950 in the class of Antun Augustinčić. During the 1950s, under Augustinčić’s influence, his sculptures and reliefs were characterised by figuration and realistic expression, especially the scenes from Ivan Goran Kovačić’s poem The Pit, in which he conveyed the tragedy of war. Deeply moved by the tragic experiences, he also drew small-scale portraits of fighters, landscapes and images of wartime devastation. Like most Croatian artists, in the 1960s he became interested in abstract forms, emphasising the construction and rhythm of the body in space. He occasionally gave associative meanings to abstract forms, for example in the cycle Erotic Games, created from 1978 – 1980. He worked as a teacher at the School of Arts and Design. He created a number of public monuments, and also worked as a printmaker and jewellery designer.
The museum sculpture Split Time from 1973 belongs to Bahorić’s period of keen interest in abstract-associative forms. The strict form of the circle with eroded edges and the disturbing crack that penetrates to the very core of the event opens up numerous existential questions that are difficult or even impossible to answer.

Text: Dajana Vlaisavljević, museum consultant 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

Ratko Petrić, The End, 1973

Ratko Petrić
(1941 – 2010)
The End, 1973
polyester
190 x 245 x 107cm
MG-4254

Ratko Petrić obtained a degree in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1966, in the class of Vanja Radauš and stayed on to work as an associate in his Master Workshop, which likely influenced the social engagement of his works. Therefore, his works represent a special form of narrative figuration, or as he himself describes it, “engaged figuration.” In the 1970s, he began creating highly socially critical works in polyester, conveying surreal and tragicomic situations (Orator, Stamp). He was one of the founding members of the Biafra Art Group, which sought to address the issue of contemporary humanism while engaging in polemics with abstract artistic tendencies. Petrić is particularly known for his engaged works from that period, characterized by an expressive and naturalistic style. In the late 1970s, he spent time in America and created a series of works inspired by his personal experience of American society. During the 1980s, he worked with bronze and produced drawings that frequently explored the theme of death as a result of his own experience with illness. In addition to sculpture, Petrić also created drawings, caricature, comic books, and worked as a graphic designer (posters, catalogs).
The museum sculpture The End from 1973, belongs to Petrić’s Biafra period. It consists of two large polyester elements, a humanoid distorted figure with wide-open mouth and a massive, naturalistically depicted spittle, as an allegorical end to everything because a better world cannot be achieved.

Text: Dajana Vlaisavljević, museum consultant 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