The National Museum of Modern Art is delighted to present an online exhibition titled “Academies, Academicisms...” on its website https://nmmu.hr/en/virtual-museum/. The exhibition is conceived by Dajana Vlaisavljević, museum consultant and head of the Collection of 19th-Century Painting (until the 1898 “Croatian Salon”). Visitors can easily navigate through the bilingual online exhibition catalogue, which is divided into several chapters: Cultivating Creative Freedom, the Munich Academy and the Art School in Zagreb, Shifting the Focus Solely onto Art, A New Substance of the Term, Through the Croatian Art History; and browse the catalogue of works and reproductions. The online exhibition “Academies, Academicisms...” marks the beginning of a series of virtual exhibitions planned by the National Museum of Modern Art, which are aimed at maintaining engagement with the audience throughout the extensive renovation of its headquarters, the Vranyczany-Dobrinović Palace. During this period, NMMA is continuously developing its exhibition program at the Josip Račić Gallery, while a part of its collection titled “One World” remains on display at the Providur Palace in Zadar until the end of 2024. Moreover, the NMMA is occasionally staging a series of visiting exhibitions throughout Croatia. Since 2020, NMMA has been consistently presenting its collection on its website and social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram through its “Discover” series where reproduced artworks are accompanied by curatorial texts.
What is academicism and academic art, and are these terms interchangeable? Which artists typify the ideals of academic art? What has constituted academic art in the past, and what is it today? To what extent can this term be redefined and/or rehabilitated? And to what degree does it overlap with the concept of tradition? These are just some of the questions that this exhibition and essay are trying to address. As a general rule, we should first define the term we are discussing, so as to avoid any potential ambiguities. Based on the definition of the Institute of Lexicography, academicism in art presupposes the use of well-established (educational, traditional) procedures, technical skills without invention. According to the historical sequence of meanings it has acquired, the term academicism primarily refers to the principles and method of instruction at the historical academies (Academy of Saint Luke in Rome, Academy of Fine Arts in Paris), and then the works and critical judgments created based on those principles by the members of the academy, professors and students, or, in turn, adherents of their methods… However, as the short article of the Lexicographical Institute further elaborates, the meaning of the terms “academicism/academic painting/academic artist” has not been as clear cut throughout the history of artistic creation. On the one hand, academic education is coveted and praised, it is taken as confirmation of creativity of the highest order (when issuing praise and/or trying to sell a particular artist’s work, one often hears the phrase, he/she is an academic artist, regardless of the stylistic expression), and on the other, there is a juxtaposing rebellious attitude against the academic method of artistic education. It is considered conservative, regressive and even backwards, especially after the second half of the 19th century. This refers to works that insist on strict rules and non-inventive eclectic work procedures. The question that arises is whether the opposing sides refer to the same term. We will, therefore, briefly try to consider the reasons for such attitudes and the very concept to which they refer. Coincidentally, all artists who study and graduate from the academies of fine art are considered academic artists, but they are not all viewed in the framework of the mostly undesirable concept of 19th century academicism, as the term is still commonly used, that is, in the sense in which it was defined by the first modernists. Academicism is also inevitably associated with the concept of “tradition”, which, although somewhat superior is also mostly used as a phrase of censure, or at best, it is vaguely approbative, with the implication, as to the work approved, of some pleasing archaeological reconstruction. At the same time, we forget that tradition is not a petrified category and that its thesaurus is continuously being augmented, without us even realising it. – from the introductory essay by the exhibition curator Dajana Vlaisavljević
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Images:
Francesco Hayez, Hector Bidding Farewell to Andromache, 1811 / oil on canvas / 165.1 cm x 154 cm / MG - 43
Nikola Mašić, Portrait of a Little Girl, 1881 / oil on canvas / 62 x 56 cm / MG - 267
Menci Clement Crnčić (1865 – 1930), Slavonian Shelling Corn, 1891 / oil on canvas, 109 x 108 cm / MG-431
Celestin Mato Medović (1857 – 1920) / Study of an Old Man , 1890 / oil on canvas, 41,5 x 32,5 cm / MG-323
Stipan Tadić (1986), Self-Portrait with Lavender (at 22 years old), , 2009./ oil on canvas , 57 x 45 cm / MG-7295
Josip Račić , In Front of the Mirror, 1908 /oil on cardboard, 111,5 x 83 cm / MG-2391
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb