Branko Ružić (4 March 1919 – 27 November 1997) was a prominent Croatian painter, sculptor and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb.

Early days

Branko Ružić was born in

Slavonski Brod Slavonski Brod (), commonly shortened to simply Brod, is a city in eastern Croatia, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Being one of the principal cities in the historical regions of Slavonia and Posavina, Slavonski Brod was the 7th large ...

to Katarina (born Blažeković) and Antun Ružić, as the youngest of four children. When he was six years old his parents moved him to

Vinkovci Vinkovci () is a city in Slavonia, in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. The city's registered population was 28,247 in the 2021 census, the total population of the city was 31,057, making it the largest town of the county. Surrounde ...

where he started school. Ružić showed a passion and skill for drawing from an early age and by the time he was in secondary school, he was already recognized by his art teacher who used to take him, along with his more advanced colleagues (one of them was painter

Slavko Kopač Slavko Kopač (August 21, 1913 – November 23, 1995) was a French painter, sculptor and poet. Kopač graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1937. After graduation, as a young artist, he studied in Paris thanks to a scholarship from ...

), to

paint Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

in the open air. After secondary school, Ružić has attended a few universities before he eventually entered the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute o ...

to study

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

in 1940. He graduated under Ivo Lozica and

Frano Kršinić Frano Kršinić (24 July 1897 – 1 January 1982) was a Croatian sculptor active in former Yugoslavia. Along with Ivan Meštrović and Antun Augustinčić, he is considered one of the three most important Croatian sculptors of the 20th centur ...

in 1944. Although he already had a degree in

he began a four–year

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

course in professor

Marino Tartaglia Marino Tartaglia (3 August 1894 – 21 April 1984) was a Croatian painter and art teacher, for many years a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb. From 1948 he was a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He received t ...

's class. He acquired a degree in

in 1948 and soon after began to exhibit his works. In 1951 Ružić mounted his first solo

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

in Vinkovci City Museum. In the next couple of years he successfully participated in numerous exhibitions (including in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

and

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

), but soon found painting to be less and less fulfilling. Eventually Ružić completely abandoned painting so he could dedicate himself to sculpting, although he returned to painting later in his career. In 1956 he sculpted the head "Father", which he considered his first piece of

. In 1959 he held his first solo exhibition of sculptures at the ULUH (Society of Croatian Artists) salon in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

Work, career and awards

Ružić was known for his famous statement „Everything is a sculpture“. He made his

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

in various techniques including

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

plaster of Paris Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

plate,

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

and

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...

. With his condensed forms, suggestive profiling and architectural volumes in which he overcomes the general over the individual he joined the trend of renewal in Croatian

in the 1950s. The motifs of Ružić's

are varied: figures,

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

sequences In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called t ...

, groups, motifs from

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

. His works are characterized by simplicity and monumentality, and sometimes by specific deformations that carry a strain of

humor Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

and

irony Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into ...

. In his career Ružić held more than one hundred solo and two hundred collective

exhibitions An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery An art gallery is a roo ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

and abroad. He won many recognitions and awards such as

Rovinj Rovinj (; it, Rovigno; Istriot: or ; grc, Ρυγίνιον, Rygínion; la, Ruginium) is a city in Croatia situated on the north Adriatic Sea with a population of 14,294 (2011). Located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula, it is a po ...

Municipality Award (1967, 1972), City of

Award (1968), Vladimir Nazor Annual Award (1973), First prize at the Concorso Archettilegnani,

Madonna di Campiglio Madonna di Campiglio (german: Sankt Maria im Pein) is a village and a ski resort in northeast Italy. It is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Pinzolo. The village lies in the Val Rendena at an elevation of above sea level, and has approximatel ...

(1988), Grand Prix at the 3rd Triennale of Croatian

Sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

(1988), Grand Prix Grisie,

(1989) and

Vladimir Nazor Award The Vladimir Nazor Award ( hr, Nagrada Vladimir Nazor) is a Croatian prize for arts and culture established in 1959 and awarded every year by the Ministry of Culture. Named after the writer Vladimir Nazor (1876–1949), the prize is awarded to Cr ...

for lifetime achievement (1985). In 1964 Ružić exhibited his

at the 32nd.

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

where an international jury awarded his work with the prize for

from the "David Bright Foundation", which makes him the only

Croat The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Ge ...

ever to win a prize at the

. His works are exhibited at many galleries and

museums A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

but most of his opus stayed within his family and the Ružić gallery in

. Ružić also wrote about his views and experience in working with children in the book „Children drawing“ (1958). From 1961 to 1985 he was professor in

at Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb.

The Ružić gallery

In 1993 the authorities of the city of

and Branko Ružić (and his wife Julia) signed an agreement concerning donation of 410 works and archives of the artist. Also, on Ružić’s call, more than a hundred renowned Croatian

painters Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and

sculptors Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

gave of their works for this collection, which makes it the first permanent exhibition of the Croatian modern art of the second half of the 20th century. Diminić, Radovani,

Petrić Petrić is a South Slavic surname, a patronymic of Petar. Notable people with the name include: * Bojan Petrić, Bosnian football player * Branka Petrić, Serbian actress * Denis Petrić, Serbian football player * Frane Petrić, Croatian philosoph ...

, Džamonja, Srnec, Picelj, Richter, Bourek, Lončarić, Lesiak, Lipovac,

Babić Babić (Serbian Cyrillic: Бабић) is a Croatian, Bosniak and Serbian family name. It is the 3rd most frequent surname in Croatia and is derived from the common Slavic word for grandmother or old woman: baba. Geographical distribution As of ...

, Šebalj, Biffel, Hegedušić, Keser, Kožarić, Drinković, Jordan, Kinert, Parać, Šutej, Labaš, Murtić, Popović are just some of the names presented. The gallery is situated within the Brod Fortress, in the renovated part of the southwestern tract of the Cavalier, on the gross area of 1.800 sq. metres. The Ružić gallery was officially opened on 15 June 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruzic, Branko People from Slavonski Brod Croatian sculptors 1919 births 1997 deaths 20th-century sculptors 20th-century Croatian painters Croatian male painters 20th-century Croatian male artists

Early days

Work, career and awards

The Ružić gallery

Further reading

References