Tag: Ksenija Kantoci

Ksenija Kantoci, Chimney (Moirae), 1980. – 1984.

Ksenija Kantoci
Chimney (Moirae), 1980. - 1984.
wood
18 x 17 x 13.5 cm
MG-5950

Ksenija Kantoci (1909 – 1995), one of the most prominent Croatian sculptors of the 20th century, her work "Chimney (Moirae)" is an abstract sculpture of smaller dimensions, made of wood, as an archetypal monolithic figure. The work exemplifies the author's intention to reduce mass and form and compress volume to express existential and psychological themes, a characteristic that has become recognizable within her oeuvre. "Chimney (Moirae)" is an example of this because, through the simplicity of the form, they suggest complex stories about fate, the passage of time, and human existence.
Moirae (Suđenice) are mythological beings in Slavic mythology who are in charge of people's destinies. They are often depicted as figures who determine destinies by weaving the thread of life, which puts them in a position outside the human world but with a direct influence on it. Kantoci explores this liminal position through this sculpture. The subjects are simultaneously part of the world and outside it; they belong to the past and mythology but are always present through their function and symbolism.
At the same time, Kantoci uses wood as a material that carries with it the impression of warmth, naturalness, and connection with nature, as well as hardness, durability, and resistance.The sculpture exudes monumentality despite its small dimensions through its simple stylization and almost archaic form. This work reflects the artist's tendency to create solid and fluid figures rooted in the material but with symbolic power transcending physical presence.

Text: Marta Radman, curator 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

Ksenija Kantoci, Torso, 1969 – 1971

Ksenija Kantoci
(1909 – 1995)
Torso, 1969 - 1971
carving, wood
66 x 25 x 33 cm
MG-3926

Ksenija Kantoci graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1937, and then continued her studies in France, Italy and Germany.
She modelled stylised portraits, abstract female figures and heads of domestic animals in bronze, stone, terracotta and wood, all of which are complemented by drawings made in various techniques. Kantoci’s striking psychologically charged and realistically conceived portraits feature a reduction of form and a compression of volume. By reducing mass, Kantoci almost completely abandoned the reality-based concept, which clearly sets her apart from other Croatian sculptors.
Ksenija Kantoci is an exceptional Croatian sculptress who received her input directly from the natural environment, especially the region of Dalmatinska Zagora (Dalmatian Hinterland), the impressive forms of which, such as animal heads, figures of women and chimneys, she transformed into works of universal significance. She has created a prolific oeuvre of wooden sculptures with rudimentary forms, accentuated monumentality, strong existential inspiration and symbolic dimension. By reducing matter, she created associative sculptures based on real templates, whether we recognise in them animal heads or figures, primarily of women. By accepting the natural properties of wood, the conflicting duality of its structure and the existing texture, she creates works of vertical form, closed core and hermetic content that are firmly rooted in the ground. She elaborates the archetypal wooden monolithic forms throughout the period of her sculptural maturity. Kantoci softly opens the mass with horizontal and vertical orientations in a balanced relationship of perpendicular and horizontal forms, as in the work Torso from her mature phase. The five-part form has a compact volume of elementary values and ambiguous associative stimulus.

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

Ksenija Kantoci, Head of a Young Girl, 1952 – 1953

Ksenija Kantoci
(1909 – 1995)
Head of a Young Girl, 1952 – 1953
bronze
36 x 14 x 14.5 cm
MG-7140

Ksenija Kantoci graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1937, and then continued her studies in France, Italy and Germany.
Kantoci’s oeuvre abounds in powerful existentially inspired and concise forms of small sizes, with an accentuated monumentality and symbolic quality. She modelled stylised portraits, abstract female figures and heads of domestic animals in bronze, stone, terracotta and wood, all of which are complemented by drawings made in various techniques. Kantoci’s striking psychologically charged and realistically conceived portraits feature a reduction of form and a compression of volume, as is the case in the portrait of her husband, Croatian painter Frano Šimunović, dating from 1955-1956. By reducing mass, Kantoci almost completely abandoned the reality-based concept, which clearly sets her apart from other Croatian sculptors.
The changes from the realistic towards the increasingly reduced forms in the mid-20th century are reflected in her portraits from that period, when the roughness and expressiveness of the execution begin to dominate her figurative works, especially portraits.
In the almost archaic aura of the Head of a Young Girl, the volume is concisely shaped and the narrative details are reduced to expressive physiognomic details, such as an asymmetrically modelled bulky head with a pageboy hairstyle with bangs and a face with expressive eyes, nose and lips.

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