Modern Gallery ( hr, Moderna galerija; since 2021 the National Museum of Modern Art, ) is a museum 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 ...

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 = , capi ...

that holds the most important and comprehensive collection of

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 a ...

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 ...

s and

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayo ...

s by 19th and 20th century Croatian artists. The collection numbers around 10,000 works of art, housed since 1934 in the historic Vranyczany Palace in the centre of Zagreb, overlooking the Zrinjevac Park. A secondary gallery is the Josip Račić Studio at Margaretska 3.

History

The Modern Gallery, originally the National Gallery for Croatian Art, dates from the early 1900s, when it was founded by the Art Society with paintings and sculptures acquired by their members, including a donation from Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer. In 1899, Izidor Kršnjavi, gave a presentation to the Art Society in Zagreb, with the idea of establishing the Gallery. His proposal was recorded in the Social Exhibitions Statute () of 1901. In the spring of 1905, to mark the Society’s 30th anniversary, three works of art were bought for the future holdings of the Modern Gallery. That year, 1905, is considered to be the official date the Gallery was founded, due to the holdings which were put together at the time. However, the collection grew gradually and it was not open for public viewing until 1914, in a single room of today’s Museum of Arts and Crafts building, where it was available only to those who showed a special interest in it. As the collection expanded, the Gallery moved to its current building, the Vranyczany Palace on Zrinjevac Park in 1934 and it has been there, with a pause during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, up until the present day. The Vranyczany Palace was designed by the Viennese architect Otto Hofer, and constructed in 1882 by Ferdo Kondrat for

Baron Lujo Vranyczany Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or ...

. Since the end of 19th century the building has changed ownership frequently, and has been restored several times. Through the years, the Vranyczany building has entertained some well-known figures in Croatia's cultural, political and economic life. From its balcony in November 1884, Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer watched the celebrations organised in his honour on the occasion of the opening of the gallery named after him. The splendid receptions of the past have now been replaced by the contemplative atmosphere of Zagreb's gallery of modern art. The Palace underwent a complete renovation between 1993 and 2005, when the current exhibition was opened to the public. Two floors of the palace have become a modern-equipped gallery showing the permanent collection of Croatian modern painting and sculpture. In the completely refurbished historic rooms, the Modern Gallery presents ''"Two Hundred Years of Croatian Fine Arts (1800-2000)"'', a representative selection of 650-700 of the best works by painters, sculptors and medal makers. The Modern Gallery has become the best known, and most complete Croatian modern art museum. Retrospectives and monographic exhibitions of works by the most prominent Croatian artists have been taking place there since the end of the 1960s, as well as theme exhibitions of Croatian and European modern art.

Collection

The Modern Gallery in Zagreb holds the richest and most important collection of Croatian art of the 19th and 20th centuries. Today the holding numbers around 10,000 works of art including paintings, sculptures, drawings and graphics, medallions and medals, as well as photographs and new media. More than 700 Croatian works of art belonging to the 19th and 20th century are on display. The exhibition extends across two floors of the Palace and the main staircase, displaying the works of individual artists, and also showing their place in the Croatian modern art scene and within modern Croatian society in general. According to Biserka Rauter Plančić, the current Director of the Modern Gallery, ''"The Gallery’s mission is to record, as much as possible, the events and changes in Croatian art which took place over the two centuries of building and breaking down the perception of the world, as well as the perception of workmanship."'' In addition to its permanent collection, the Modern Gallery also holds special exhibits. In 2009, a multi-sensory Tactile Gallery MG, was opened to help vision-impaired visitors experience major Croatian modern paintings and sculptures through touch and sound. The Modern Gallery’s holdings continue to expand and once a year, a New Acquisitions exhibition is held. A new multi-media exhibition entitled “Ikonografija grada u hrvatskom slikarstvu u prvoj polovici 20 st.“ (Iconography of Towns in Croatian Paintings from the First Half of the 20th Century), was opened to the public in April 2010. It presents the viewer with a motif of a town in paintings, drawing, graphics, art photography; on posters and film, and in literature and music. The exhibit covers over 150 artefacts including works of the most significant Croatian artists of the 20th century, from the Munich circle to socialism and the beginnings of the abstract art. Artists represented in the permanent collection of the Modern Gallery include: * Ljubo Babić * Vojin Bakić * Petar Barišić *

Ivo Deković Ivo is a masculine given name, in use in various European languages. The name used in western European languages originates as a Normannic name recorded since the High Middle Ages, and the French name Yves is a variant of it. The unrelated So ...

Marijan Detoni Marijan is a male Croatian first name. The Macedonian version of this name is Marjan. Marijan is also a last name found in Croatia. People named Marijan *Marijan Beneš – Croatian boxer * Marijan Brkić Brk – Croatian musician * Marijan ...

Ivo Dulčić Ivo is a masculine given name, in use in various European languages. The name used in western European languages originates as a Normannic name recorded since the High Middle Ages, and the French name Yves is a variant of it. The unrelated So ...

Dušan Džamonja Dušan Džamonja ( sr, Душан Џамоња, ; 31 January 1928 – 14 January 2009) was a Yugoslav sculptor of Serbian ancestry. Education and career Džamonja was born in 1928 in Strumica, former Vardar Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia. I ...

Vladimir Becić Vladimir Becić (1886–1954) was a Croatian painter, best known for his early work in Munich, which had a strong influence on the direction of modern art in Croatia. Becić studied painting in Munich at the prestigious Academy of Arts along ...

* F. Bilak *

Vlaho Bukovac Vlaho Bukovac (french: Blaise Bukovac; it, Biagio Faggioni; 4 July 1855 – 23 April 1922) was a Croatian painter and academic. His life and work were eclectic, for the artist pursued his career in a variety of locales and his style changed great ...

Vladimir Gašparić Gapo Vladimir may refer to: Names * Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name * Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name * Volodymyr for the Ukra ...

Vilko Gecan Vilko Gecan (16 June 1894 – 25 June 1973) was a Croatian painter, influential in the Zagreb modern art scene of the 1920s and 1930s. He is best known for his expressionist paintings and drawings, and for his contributions to the local avantgard ...

Josip Generalić Josip Generalić (1935–2004) was a Croatian painter. His works can be found at the Croatian Museum of Naïve Art The Croatian Museum of Naïve Art ( hr, Hrvatski muzej naivne umjetnosti) is a fine art museum in Zagreb, Croatia dedicated to th ...

Oton Gliha Oton Gliha (Črnomelj, 21 May 1914 - Zagreb, 19 July 1999) was a Croatian artist, born in Slovenia. A graduate of the Academy of fine Arts in Zagreb, Gliha continued his studies in Paris, Vienna and Munich. He is best known for his series of abs ...

* Krsto Hegedušić * Ljubo Ivančić * Franz Jaschke * Anto Jerković * Vasilije Josip Jordan * Leo Junek * Vjekoslav Karas *

Ivo Kerdić Ivo Kerdić (1881–1953) was a Croatian sculptor, best known for his metalwork and medallions. Biography Ivo Kerdić was born 19 May 1881 in Davor, a small village near Slavonski Brod, Croatia, at that time in Austria-Hungary. The son of a ...

* Zlatko Keser *

Josip Klarica Josip Klarica (1946-2020) was a Croatian artist working in the mediums of film and photography. Klarica was born in Belgrade, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia. He first studied photography and then attended the Film Academy in Prague (1975–77). As an a ...

* Slavko Kopač * Kuzma Kovačić * Miroslav Kraljević * Frano Kršinić * Vatroslav Kuliš * Ferdinand Kulmer * Ivan Lesjak * Tihomir Lončar * Nikola Mašić * Ivan Meštrović * Matko Mijić * Karlo Mijić * Robert Frangeš Mihanović * Jerolim Miše * Antun Motika *

Edo Murtić Edo Murtić (4 May 1921 – 2 January 2005) was a painter from Croatia, best known for his lyrical abstraction and abstract expressionism style. He worked in a variety of media, including oil painting, gouache, graphic design, ceramics, mosaic ...

* Sofija Naletilić Penavuša * Zoltan Novak * Mladen Pejaković *

Ivan Picelj Ivan Picelj (28 July 1924 – 22 February 2011) was a contemporary Croatian painter, sculptor and graphic designer. Picelj developed a specific variation of geometric abstraction in Croatian painting by using primary colours and by reducing the sh ...

* Dimitrije Popović *

Zlatko Prica Zlatko ( sr-Cyrl, Златко, ) is a South Slavic masculine given name. The name is derived from the word ''zlato'' meaning gold with hypocoristic suffix ''-ko'' common in South Slavic languages. Zlatko is a given name. Notable people with the na ...

* Ferdo Quiquerez * Mirko Racki * Josip Račić * Slava Raškaj * Ivan Rendić *

Ivo Režek Ivo is a masculine given name, in use in various European languages. The name used in western European languages originates as a Normannic name recorded since the High Middle Ages, and the French name Yves is a variant of it. The unrelated So ...

* Branko Ružić * Đuro Seder * Miljenko Stančić * Milan Steiner * Dalibor Stošić * Mihael Stroy * Gabrijel Stupica * Ivo Šebalj * Zlatko Šulentić * Marino Tartaglia * Marija Ujević * Milivoj Uzelac * Vladimir Varlaj * Emanuel Vidović * Zlatan Vrkljan * Josip Zanki * Ivan Zasche In addition to the permanent display, occasional exhibitions of local and foreign artists are also held. For example, from December 2008 to March 2009, the first complete retrospective of Josip Račić's works was on display on the first floor of the gallery; Račić is one of the most important representatives of Croatian Modernist painting. The gallery publishes monographs on artists and their works in a catalogue series called Modern Croatian Art, and in other publications.

References

External links

Modern Gallery official website
{{authority control Art museums and galleries in Zagreb

Donji grad, Zagreb Art museums established in 1914 1914 establishments in Croatia Neoclassical architecture in Croatia

History

Collection

See also

References

External links