Tag: Antun Augustinčić

Antun Augustinčić, Drunkards, 1935

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

Antun Augustinčić, Portrait of Dr. Rafael Dolinšek, 1929

Antun Augustinčić
(1900 - 1979)
Portrait of Dr. Rafael Dolinšek, 1929
casting, bronze
45 x 18 x 24 cm
MG-2499

Augustinčić began studying sculpture at the College of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb in 1918 under Rudolf Valdec and Robert Frangeš. In 1922, the institution was renamed the Royal Academy of Arts and Crafts, and 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 conscious art group Zemlja (1929–1935) and became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1946.
He participated in numerous international public competitions and earned a reputation as a master of public monuments. His concept of realism blends elements of Meštrović’s monumentalism with Kršinić’s lyrical approach. His renowned portraits place him among the foremost exponents of Croatian psychological portrait sculpture.
The portrait of Dr. Rafael Dolinšek is sculpted as a shallow bust, with the head subtly turned to the right and part of the neck resting directly on the stone base. The full, oval volume features a high forehead, thin compressed lips, and hair slicked back towards the nape. Realistically rendered facial features are synthesised into a refined expression, representing Dr. Dolinšek, a distinguished physician and major art collector, whose collection of works by his contemporaries can be found at the NMMA.

Text: Tatijana Gareljić, 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

Antun Augustinčić, Girl Asleep (Rest), 1948

Antun Augustinčić
(1900 – 1979)
Girl Asleep (Rest), 1948
carving, marble
88 x 50 x 60.5 cm
MG-1372

Alongside Ivan Meštrović and Frano Kršinić, Antun Augustinčić is the most prominent Croatian sculptor of the 20th century. In 1918, he started studying sculpture at the Advanced School of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb under Rudolf Valdec and Robert Frangeš, and in 1922, when it became the Royal Academy of Arts and Crafts, he continued his studies under Ivan Meštrović. After his graduation in 1924, as a French government scholarship holder, he moved to Paris where he studied at the École des Arts Décoratifs and Académie des Beaux-Arts in the class of J. A. Injalbert. In 1925, he exhibited his works at the Salon des artistes français, then in 1926 at the Salon des Indépendants. He was one of the founders of the socially engaged art group Earth (1929 - 1935), and worked as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb since 1946.
After the 1930s, the artist’s realistic free agitated modelling style and original artistic idea, featuring suggestive dramatic movements and expressivity, are visible in his figurative and equestrian compositions, which he successfully applied to numerous public monuments realised around the world.
Augustinčić found respite from public monuments in an impressive gallery of subjective sculptures, creating figures of women and female nudes, connecting objective beauty and individual sculptural projection. The skilfully carved Girl Asleep is depicted as a clothed, barefoot young woman in a seated position with her arms around her knees, her head resting on her left shoulder. The lyrical figure in a lovely relaxed pose is sculpted with an impressively conveyed unblemished tenderness of youth.

Text: Tatijana Gareljić, 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