Croatian History

Croatian painter and muralist Maximilian (Maxo) Vanka (Zagreb 1889 – Mexico 1963) completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where later he became professor of painting. He also studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium. As a young student he exhibited at an international show in the Belgian capital and in 1914 won the gold medal of King Albert at this event, for his Bistricki prostenjari (Marija Bistrica fairgoers) with beautiful Croatian folklore…

Read More Read More

One of the symbols of the United Nations that everybody knows is the Horsewoman (the Monument of Peace), a sculpture created by Antun Augustincic (1900-1979). It was given as a gift to the UN and it is situated in front of the main building in New York. The basement of the monument is made of the marble from the Croatian island of Brac. The equestrian statue was cast in the city of Zagreb, capital of Croatia. The Monument of Peace…

Read More Read More

Zdenka Sertić (1899-1986), Croatian painter and ethnographer, collaborated in various journals, lexicons, and enciclopaedias as a graphic illustrator specilized in Croatian folklore, in particular in national comstumes and customs. She had exhibitions in Paris, Leipzig, Barcelona, Berlin, Haag, Bruxelles, Kopenhagen, etc.

Kristian Krekovic (1901-1985), outstanding Croatian artist, born in the village of Koprivna near Tuzla in Bosnia – Herzegovina, in the family of forester from Croatian region of Lika, died in Palma de Mallorca. He studied in Vienna and Paris, and already since 1928 was a member of the French Society of Visual Arts. The same year he was awarded the gold medal in Bordeaux (Exhibition of international art). Krekovic portrayed many ministers, statesmen, and outstanding persons like Mahatma Gandhi (1931…

Read More Read More

Oscar Nemon (1906-1985), outstanding sculptor and medallist, was born in Croatian town Osijek, and has Jewish roots (Oscar Neumann). Having obtained his baccalaureate in Osijek, in 1923 he moved to Vienna. He was inspired and supported by Ivan Mestrovic, a great Croatian sculptor. In 1931 Nemon made a portrait of Sigmund Freud in person, for which Freud said to be “…a very good and astonishingly lifelike impression of me”. After a short stay in Paris, having obtained bursary from his…

Read More Read More

Oton Gliha (1914-1999) depicted through his paintings his poetic impressions about hundreds of kilometers of dry stone walls called GROMACE, built on numerous Croatian islands during many centuries. His very original style, based on the unique texture of the gromace, attracted considerable interest during exhibitions in Venice (the bienalle), Sao Paulo, Torino, Milano, Genova, Paris. Some of his paintings are held in the Tate Gallery, the Guggenheim Museum, also in Sarajevo, Ohrid, and in the building of YU government in…

Read More Read More

Virgilije Nevjestic is one of today’s greatest graphic artists, a professor in Paris (since 1977 at the “Institute for the formation of restorers of works of art”, and also the chief of the “Atelier for artistic technology”). His masterpieces are in possession o many private collections, including a collection of Georges Pompidou, a former president of France. One of his famous large-scale paintings is Vukovar, which he described as a scream, revolt against an evil done to the Croatian people.

Zdravko Ducmelic (1923-1989), outstanding Croatian artist born in Vinkovci, studied painting in Zagreb, Rome and Madrid (Real Academia de San Fernando), and in 1949 emigrated to Argentina. From 1963 to 1966 he was director of Escuela Superior de Artes de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Zdravko Ducmelic, autoportrait Ducmelic masterfully illustrated a famous book “Laberintos”, written by Jorge Luis Borges (Ed. De Arte Gaglianone, Buenos Aires, 1983), with his surreal, quasi-metaphysical works (…el pintor preferido de Borges). He also made…

Read More Read More

Josip Turkalj (or Joseph Turkaly, 1924-2007) sculptured numerous works that are found throughout America in private collections and public places. Suffice to mention a few: an eighteen-foot bronze Moses on the campus of Notre Dame, two marble statues of Mary (Our Lady of Peace and Our Lady of Bistrica) at the National Shrine in Washington, D.C., a bronze statue of George Washington in the city of Buffalo, also the statues of St. Paul (Croatian church in Cleveland), Cardinal Stepinac (Croatian…

Read More Read More

Dusan Dzamonja (1928) is an avant-garde sculptor whose monuments can be seen, besides Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, also in public areas in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Italy, the USA, and in the new Yugoslavia. As a means of expression he uses iron, glass, concrete etc. In 1998 he had a great retrospective in Paris (Place Vendome).