Juraj Dobrović
(1928)
Spatial Construction, 1964-1966
mixed media
80 x 80 x 10.4 cm
MG-4241
Croatian painter and graphic artist Juraj Dobrović (1928) graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Business in 1956, and in art history from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1961 in Zagreb. He started painting in 1962, and has remained devoted to the visual arts ever since.
Dobrović belongs to a group of artists who, in the early 1960s, continued the tradition of Geometric Abstraction impacted by the earlier EXAT 51 group of painters and architects that was active between 1950 and 1956. He was also a notable member of the New Tendencies international art movement which was founded in Zagreb in 1961. Dobrović has developed his own analytical system, in which he opens up and folds complementary forms, and in which he brings into question the concepts of universal duality and complementarity from a much wider perspective. He has been modelling rational geometric sculptures and rotating objects featuring accentuated light effects. At a later stage, he started reducing the geometric elements in his sculptures, while highlighting the plasticity of their forms and introducing mirror symmetry. He also does industrial and graphic design.
Juraj Dobrović’s Spatial Construction sculpture from 1964-1966 is shaped like a monochromatic relief-object. The transformation of the rotating cube creates an optical illusion.
Text: Tatijana Gareljić, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Ana Janković
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb