125 Masterpieces of Croatian Art

About a catalogue. The art critics and art historians (the Exhibition Advisory Board) who worked on the show and catalogue did not have an easy task choosing the 125 best works of Croatian art which would communicate the illustrious and affluent artistic events of the last 125 years. What makes this show potentially controversial is that in spite of an adamant desire and serious effort, such a demanding selection of art works could never show absolute and unbiased anthological choices that could represent the very best works of modem Croatian art. However, the current exhibit offers to readers and viewers a selection of the greatest names and the paramount works from 1870 until 1995. These works of art stress Croatian artistic events starting with Academic Realism, plain-airism and historicism. They cover Symbolism and Secession style, Cézanneism, cubist and expressionistic influences and their presentation at the Spring Salon (1916-1928), they spread over periods of poetic realism, coloristic intimism and expressionism during the forth decade, all the way through the wide scope of movements, artistic tendencies, groups and developments after World War II. Mixed together are traditions and innovations, abstraction and figuration, collective and individual mythologies. Accented are figurative objects and the subsequent dematrialization of art objects, Moderna, avant-garde and post-avant-garde. Shown are meetings of generations, poetics and work that at first sight seem far apart, but nevertheless represent the only legitimate course for Croatian art during the second part of the 19th and the entire 20th centuries. The catalogue is a breakthrough in our community. Each of the 125 color reproductions is described by an analytical text elucidating the chosen work and the author Texts were written by twenty firstrate art historians and critics. The catalogue should serve as a useful manuscript and compendium for all art lovers

Zdenko Rus