Modern Gallery (; 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, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

that holds the most important and comprehensive collection of

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

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 ...

s and

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, 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. 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 Josip Juraj Strossmayer, also Štrosmajer (; ; 4 February 1815 – 8 April 1905) was a Croatian prelate of the Catholic Church, politician and benefactor (law), benefactor. Between 1849 and his death, he served as the Bishop of Đakovo, Bishop ...

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 Ljubomir Tito Stjepan Babić (14 June 1890 – 14 May 1974) was a Croatian artist, museum curator and literary critic. As an artist, he worked in a variety of media including oils, tempera, watercolour, drawing, etching, and lithography. He wa ...

Vojin Bakić Vojin Bakić ( sr-cyrl, Војин Бакић; 5 June 1915 – 18 December 1992) was a prominent Yugoslav sculptor. Educated at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts and by Ivan Meštrović and Frano Kršin ...

* Petar Barišić * Ivo Deković * Marijan Detoni * Ivo Dulčić *

Dušan Džamonja Dušan Džamonja (, ; 31 January 1928 – 14 January 2009) was a Yugoslav sculptor of Serbian ancestry. Education and career Džamonja was born in 1928 in Strumica, Macedonia, former Vardar Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1945, Džamonja be ...

* Vladimir Becić * F. Bilak *

Vlaho Bukovac Vlaho Bukovac (; ; 4 July 1855 – 23 April 1922) was a Croatian painting, painter and academic. His life and work were eclecticism, eclectic, for the artist pursued his career in a variety of locales and his style changed greatly over the course ...

* Vladimir Gašparić Gapo * Vilko Gecan * Josip Generalić * Oton Gliha *

Krsto Hegedušić Krsto Hegedušić (26 November 1901 – 7 April 1975) was a Croatian painter, illustrator and theater designer. His most famous paintings depict the harsh life of the Croatian peasantry in the manner of naive art. He was one of the founders of ...

* Ljubo Ivančić * Franz Jaschke * Anto Jerković * Vasilije Josip Jordan * Leo Junek * Vjekoslav Karas * Ivo Kerdić * Zlatko Keser * Josip Klarica * Slavko Kopač * Kuzma Kovačić * Miroslav Kraljević * Frano Kršinić * Vatroslav Kuliš * Ferdinand Kulmer * Ivan Lesjak * Tihomir Lončar * Nikola Mašić *

Ivan Meštrović Ivan Meštrović (; 15 August 1883 – 16 January 1962) was a Croatian and Yugoslav sculptor, architect, and writer. He was the most prominent modern Croatian sculptor and a leading artistic personality in contemporary Zagreb. He studied at Pa ...

* Matko Mijić *

Karlo Mijić Karlo Mijić (1887–1964) was a Yugoslav painter noted for his paintings of the Bosnian landscape. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Mijic, Karlo 1887 births 1964 deaths Yugoslav painters ...

* Robert Frangeš Mihanović *

Jerolim Miše Jerolim Miše (25 September 1890 – 14 September 1970), was a Croatian painter, teacher, and art critic. He painted portraits, still lifes and landscapes of his native Dalmatia. A member of the Group of Three, Group of Four, and the Independent ...

* Antun Motika * Edo Murtić * Sofija Naletilić Penavuša * Zoltan Novak * Mladen Pejaković * Ivan Picelj *

Dimitrije Popović Dimitrije Popović ( sr-cyrl, Димитрије Поповић; born 4 March 1951) is an eminent Montenegrin and Croatian painter, sculptor, art critic and philosopher born in Cetinje, Montenegro. He attended elementary and high school in his ho ...

* Zlatko Prica *

Ferdo Quiquerez Ferdinand (Ferdo) von Quiquerez, also called Ferdo Kikerec (17 March 1845, Budapest – 12 January 1893, Zagreb) was a Croats, Croatian painter of French ancestry. Among his most popular history paintings are the ''Arrival of the Croats at Sea'' ...

* Mirko Racki * Josip Račić * Slava Raškaj *

Ivan Rendić Ivan Rendić (27 August 1849 – 29 June 1932) was a Croatian sculptor. Biography He began sculpting early on in life, thanks to the stoneworking tradition of the island of Brač, where he was raised. He finished arts school in Venice in 1871 ...

* Ivo Režek * Branko Ružić * Đuro Seder * Miljenko Stančić * Milan Steiner * Dalibor Stošić * Mihael Stroy * Gabrijel Stupica * Ivo Šebalj *

Zlatko Šulentić Zlatko Šulentić (16 March 1893 – 9 July 1971) was a Croatian Painting, painter of landscapes and portraits. He was one of the second generation of Croatian modern painters, a follower of the Croatian art of the 20th century#Munich Circle, Mu ...

* Marino Tartaglia * Marija Ujević *

Milivoj Uzelac Milivoj Uzelac (1897–1977) was a painter influential in the Zagreb modern art scene of the 1920s and 30s. During the Zagreb Spring Salon of the 1920s, he participated with Vilko Gecan, Marijan Trepše and Vladimir Varlaj as the Group of Four ...

* 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.

Gallery

File:Zagreb Moderna galerija.jpg, Interior File:Jan Matejko - Śmierć króla Przemysła II (fragment).jpg, ''Śmierć króla Przemysła II'' (Death of King Przemysł),

Jan Matejko Jan Alojzy Matejko (; also known as Jan Mateyko; 24 June 1838 – 1 November 1893) was a Polish painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works include large scale ...

, 1875 File:1910, Miroslav Kraljevic, Autoportret sa psom, ulje, 110x85,5, Moderna galerija Zagreb.jpg, ''Self-portrait with a dog'', Miroslav Kraljević, 1910 File:1908, Josip Racic, Autoportret, ulje, 65,1x53,1, Moderna galerija Zagreb.jpg, ''Self-portrait'', Josip Račić, 1908 File:Celestin Medović - Žrtva Neomova.jpg, ''Žrtva Neomova'', Celestin Medović, 1895 File:Oton Iveković - Veliki Tabor-žena u krevetu.jpg, ''Veliki Tabor-žena u krevetu'' ( Veliki Tabor, woman in bed),

Oton Iveković Oton Iveković (; 17 April 1869 – 4 July 1939) was a Croats, Croatian painter. A graduate of Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Iveković later taught at the University of Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts, Academy of Fine ...

, 1939 File:Miroslav Kraljević - Zrelo voće.jpg, ''Zrelo voće'' (Ripe fruit), Miroslav Kraljević, 1912 File:Vlaho Bukovac - Ikar na hridi.jpg, ''Ikar na hridi'', (Ikar on the rock),

, 1897 File:Menci Clement Crnčić - Bonaca.jpg, ''Bonaca'' (Calmness), Menci Clement Crnčić, 1906 File:Vlaho Bukovac - Hugo Vasilij Hoyos.jpg, ''Hugo Vasilij Hoyos'',

, 1895 File:Ivan Tišov - Muški akt.jpg, ''Muški akt'' (Man act), Ivan Tišov, 1913 File:Ivan Tišov - Studija Rebeke.jpg, ''Studija Rebeke'' (Rebeca studies), Ivan Tišov, 1894 File:Menci Clement Crnčić - Pejzaž.jpg, ''Pejzaž'' (Landscape), Menci Clement Crnčić, 1915 - 1920

References

External links

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

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

History

Collection

Gallery

See also

References

External links