Tag: Ljubo Babić

Ljubo Babić, Zagorje Landscape (November), 1937

Ljubo Babić
Zagorje Landscape (November), 1937
oil on canvas
62.2 x 75.6 cm
MG-962

The painting Zagorje Landscape (November) is Ljubo Babić’s typical patriotic painting metaphor from the 1930s. Striving for ‘our expression’ as the foundation for building national consciousness, but also trying to promote the specificities of our culture on the contemporary Mittel European scene, in the cycle My Native Land, Ljubo Babić proudly presents the spatial matrix of the region he hails from. Viewing the undulating landscape and fragmented fields from above, Babić ‘portrays’ the specific structures of the northern Croatian landscape in tonal gradations. His artistic idealisation and aesthetics, closely connected to the bourgeoisie, are the antipodes to the complex socio-political situation, but also the current ideology of the ‘Earth’ Group.
Ljubo Babić graduated from the College of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, and the Academy in Munich. He later studied in Paris, and obtained a degree in art history in Zagreb in 1932. As a painter, set and costume designer, graphic artist, art pedagogue and critic, art historian, museologist, writer and editor, he played a pivotal role in Croatia’s 20th century culture and art. He participated in the founding of the Croatian Spring Salon, the Independent Group of Artists, the Group of Three and Croatian Artists. As the first curator of the National Museum of Modern Art (NMMU), he authored the first permanent exhibition set-up of the NMMU that represented the complex development of 19th and 20th century art in Croatia, for which purpose the building that today houses the national museum was fully renovated.

Text: Lada Bošnjak Velagić, senior 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

Ljubo Babić, Olive Grove (Smokvice near Viganj), 1930

Ljubo Babić
Olive Grove (Smokvice near Viganj), 1930
oil on canvas
60 x 50 cm
MG-968

In 1929, Ljubo Babić brought together the Group of Three around the idea of our original artistic expression. With Jerolim Miše and Vladimir Becić, he focused tremendous effort, talent and high technical skill to understanding the reality of our region and finding an adequate expression for it. Having been influenced by French contemporary painting after 1930, he began to construct that reality with colour. Olive Grove, an enchanting scene from Smokvice Bay on the peninsula of Pelješac is characteristic of the series of landscapes from the south of Dalmatia conceived in this way. In this simultaneously real and dreamy scene with Mediterranean vegetation, drystone wall and stairs, Babić epitomises the heat of the sun and the vivid grey of the Dalmatian karst, and reduces the minuscule human figure deep in the scene to a colouristic accent irrelevant to the content.
Ljubo Babić (1890 – 1974) started his art education in Zagreb, and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He continued his studies in Paris, and in 1932 he obtained a degree in art history in Zagreb. As a painter, set and costume designer, graphic artist, art pedagogue and critic, art historian, museologist, writer and editor, he became an epochal figure in the 20th century Croatian culture and art. He participated in the foundation of the Croatian Spring Salon, the Independent Group of Artists, Group of Four, Group of Three, Group of Croatian Artists and Croatian Artists. As the first curator of the Modern Gallery (today the National Museum of Modern Art), he was the author of its first permanent display in 1920. He created more than 200 innovative theatre stage sets. He illustrated numerous books and designed many posters.

Text: Lada Bošnjak Velagić, senior curator at the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2023
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2023

Ljubo Babić, Golgotha, 1917

Ljubo Babić
Golgotha, 1917
oil on wood
78 x 81.2 cm
MG-952

In several depictions of Golgotha from 1917, Ljubo Babić emphasises the universal theme of general disintegration and chaos with emptiness in the centre of the scene and pronounced light contrasts. Babić expands on the expressionist breakthrough of the composition and colourway in Kraljević’s Golgotha from 1912, and creates a suggestive vision of general doom. The painting is dominated by a sinister supernatural ambience that threatens to swallow the final scene of Christ’s Passion deep in the background.
Ljubo Babić attended secondary art school in Zagreb, and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He continued his studies in Paris, and he graduated in art history in Zagreb in 1932. As a painter, set and costume designer, graphic artist, art pedagogue and critic, art historian, museologist, writer and editor, Ljubo Babić was an epochal figure in the 20th century Croatian culture and art. He participated in the foundation of the Croatian Spring Salon, the Independent Group of Artists, Group of Four, Group of Three, Group of Croatian Artists and Croatian Artists. As the first curator of the Modern Gallery (today the National Museum of Modern Art), he was the author of its first permanent display shown in 1920 in the Museum of Arts and Crafts. In 1948, he designed the first display of the National Museum of Modern Art’s collection, which represents the complex development of 19th and 20th century Croatian art, in the building in which the museum still operates today.

Text: Lada Bošnjak Velagić, senior curator of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2022
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Pgoto: Gopran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2022

Ljubo Babić, Castilian Landscape, 1921

Ljubo Babić
Castilian Landscape, 1921
oil on canvas, 49 x 64.5 cm
MG-964
The 1920 trip to Spain significantly influenced Ljubo Babić’s creative work. Impressed by Spanish art and culture, but also its magnificent landscape, Babić created a portfolio of prints titled Toledo, a series of watercolours and an oil on canvas dedicated to the Castilian Landscape. Babić conveys the spirit and meaning of Spanish heritage with a detailed construction of space and dramatic light over the fields. On the other hand, Babić will later theoretically explain the idea of ‘our’ expression as specific to Croatian culture, and will provide a painterly elaboration in the cycle Land of My Birth from the late 1930s.
As a painter, set and costume designer, graphic artist, art pedagogue and critic, art historian, museologist, writer and editor, Ljubo Babić was one of the central personalities in the 20th century Croatian cultural life, and his views greatly influenced the general characteristics of Croatian art. He participated in the founding of the Croatian Spring Salon, Group of Independent Artists, Group of Four, Group of Three, Group of Croatian Artist and Croatian Artists. As the first curator of the National Museum of Modern Art, he was the author of its first permanent display shown in 1920 in the Museum of Arts and Crafts. In 1948, he designed the first display of the National Museum of Modern Art’s collection, which represents the complex development of 19th and 20th century Croatian art, for which purpose today’s building underwent extensive renovations.
Text: Lada Bošnjak Velagić, Senior 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
Tekst: Lada Bošnjak Velagić, viša kustosica Nacionalnog muzeja moderne umjetnosti © Nacionalni muzej moderne umjetnosti, Zagreb
Foto: Goran Vranić © Nacionalni muzej moderne umjetnosti, Zagreb

Ljubo Babić, Croatian Peasant, 1926

Ljubo Babić
Croatian Peasant, 1926
oil on canvas
151 x 120.5 cm
MG-6501

With his painting the Croatian Peasant, Ljubo Babić pays tribute to the strong, hard-working and honest Croatian peasant whose efforts and labour the homeland rests upon. In the spirit of contemporary Neorealism, Babić emphasizes, with the monumental figure, the meaning and not the manifestation of reality. Instead of a portrait, Babić paints a personification of important national, but also universal human virtues. Although he participated in the founding of the Croatian Spring Salon, Ljubo Babić stopped participating in their exhibitions in the early 1920s and formed the Independent Group of Artists. In contrast to the Salon, which was then more oriented towards European trends, the Independents aspired to create their own original artistic expression without foreign influences. Babić will soon theoretically explain the need for national artistic singularity and elaborate it further as a painter. Babić’s creative and theoretical efforts related to ‘our’ expression left a significant mark on Croatian art from the end of the 19th century until World War II.

As a painter, set and costume designer, graphic artist, art pedagogue and critic, art historian, museologist, writer and editor, Ljubo Babić was an epochal figure in the 20th century Croatian culture and art, and after the Independent Group of Artists he also participated in the foundation of the Group of Four, Group of Three, Group of Croatian Artists and Croatian Artists. As the first curator of the National Museum of Modern Art, he was the author of its first permanent display shown in 1920 in the Museum of Arts and Crafts. In 1948, he designed the first display of the National Museum of Modern Art’s collection, which represents the complex development of 19th and 20th century Croatian art, for which purpose today’s building underwent extensive renovations.

Text: Lada Bošnjak Velagić, Senior curator of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Skip to content