ZAGREB, 19 May 2022 - Zagreb's Klovićevi Dvori Gallery on Wednesday marked its 40th anniversary with an exhibition of graphics entitled "Ukrainian Rhapsody" and the screening of a film about the gallery.

The exhibition, initiated by former culture minister Božo Biškupić, was opened by Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek, who said that Klovićevi Dvori was one of the most important world galleries, having hosted more than 1,500 exhibitions.

The exhibition, featuring works by 14 Croatian artists, is a token of solidarity with the suffering of the Ukrainian people, Obuljen Koržinek said.

Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Kyrylych, who attended the event, thanked Croatia and its prime minister for their strong support to Ukraine.

Attending the opening of the exhibition were also Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, government ministers, members of parliament and other prominent public figures.

The exhibition "Ukrainian Rhapsody" lasts until 19 June.

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February 6th, 2022 - The Klovićevi Dvori Gallery announced the second exhibition in the series dedicated to Croatian artist Vlaho Bukovac. It covers the period after Bukovac returned to Zagreb, where he created some of his best known masterpieces and influenced a whole new generation of artists

There are some artists whose work you’ll go and fawn over no matter how many times you’ve seen it in the past. One such artist is Vlaho Bukovac, a superb Croatian painter who created his best work at the turn of the 20th century.

In 2018, the Klovićevi Dvori gallery in Zagreb launched the ambitious project ‘Vlaho Bukovac in Europe’, an exhibition series dedicated to the great artist, split into several distinctive stages of his life and work.

The first exhibition in the series, titled Vlaho Bukovac in Paris, 1878-1892 and held in 2018, featured the early work of Bukovac, from his amateur beginnings in North America, art school in Paris, occasional work stays in England, as well as short but fruitful stays in the homeland, until he finally returned home for a longer period of time.

The gallery in Zagreb has now announced the second exhibition in the series, titled Roots and Wings: Vlaho Bukovac in Zagreb, Cavtat and Vienna, 1893-1903. The long-awaited exhibition is opening in February 2022 and will thus also mark the hundredth anniversary of Bukovac's death.

The exhibition is covering the period after Bukovac returned to Zagreb, where he soon became a central figure of the cultural scene and a great mentor to the young generation of artists. His seductive colorism influenced a whole new generation of painters in Zagreb, so much so they became known as the Zagreb School of Colour.

Owing to Bukovac, Zagreb became the region’s leading hotspot for artistic events. It was also the period when the artist was most prolific in terms of his work, as it was Zagreb where, driven by creative enthusiasm, he created some of his best known masterpieces.

Vlaho Bukovac, Gundulic's Dream (1894)

As a prominent figure on the social scene in Zagreb who often socialised with the intellectual elite, Bukovac portrayed members of distinguished families such as the Vranyczany, Pongrač, Nossan, Miletić, Farkaš, Crnadak and Berger.

The exhibition will also feature an opus created in his native Cavtat between 1899 and 1902. In terms of style, Bukovac reached his creative peak in his hometown, creating some of the most beautiful works of plein-air painting.

He stayed in Cavtat for four years, and later moved to Vienna with his family. His stay in Vienna and the success of his solo exhibition will be crucial for his later move to Prague.

The exhibition will present the life and work of Bukovac in chronological order, providing an in-depth look into numerous events in his life and the role they played in his work.

The works for the exhibition were borrowed from numerous museums and galleries in Croatia and neighbouring countries. We’ll have an opportunity to see paintings that were thus far completely unknown to the public, on loan by private collectors.

Authors of the exhibition: Petra Vugrinec and Lucija Vuković
Co-authors: Iskra Iveljić, Irena Kraševac, Dragan Damjanović i Petar Petrović
Curator: Iva Sudec Andreis

Klovićevi dvori gallery, Zagreb
February 18th - May 22nd, 2022

ZAGREB, 17 Dec 2021 - An exhibition of artefacts found in a burial mound in Jalžabet dating back to the sixth century BC was opened at the Croatian History Institute on Friday.

The "Gold to gold" exhibition was opened by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who said the Gomila burial mound was one of the most valuable examples of prehistoric burial architecture of its kind in Europe.

From the end of the ninth to the mid-fourth century BC, the region from the Atlantic to the Danube was dominated by the Hallstatt culture, which was sort of an early form of European unity, he said.

The region along the Drava and Mura rivers belonged to the east Hallstatt culture and it is part of our prehistoric cultural heritage, the prime minister added.

In our region, the Iron Age came out of the spiritual and material culture of the late Bronze Age, he said, adding that the deceased were incinerated and the most prominent members of society were buried in tombs below artificially made mounds called tumuli, Plenković said.

He added that it was of special value to Croatia that one of the best preserved and most important locations from the early Iron Age in central Europe was south of the Drava river, in Jalžabet and nearby Martijanec.

Two tumuli called Gomila were found in Jalžabet in which experts recognised the burial places of the Hallstatt aristocracy, Plenković said.

He recalled that luxury finds made of various materials were discovered in the tombs. They are rare items of gold and amber, examples of supreme craftsmanship which show that the people who made them had developed many of the techniques and skills which we inherited, he said.

Those items were buried for millennia and now researchers are faced with the challenge of finding out about a prehistoric society, lives and beliefs centered around one event, the ceremonial burial of a ruler for whom one of the biggest tumuli in Europe was built, the one in Jalžabet, Plenković said, adding that there are still many mysteries concerning the complexly built Gomila.

He said the burial mound also had tourism potential and that the exhibition comprised everything archaeologists found in the last four years.

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ZAGREB, 4 Nov 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Thursday opened the exhibition "Freedom is Called by Its Name", staged by the National and University Library (NSK) in Zagreb to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the fall of Vukovar.

Plenković said that every time that emotions and events from 30 years ago are mentioned there is no better word that embodies the idea of Vukovar than the word 'freedom', which the authors of the exhibition pointed out well in its title.

The exhibition reminds us of the city that suffered the most unimaginable and cruel destruction after the Second World War in Europe, the prime minister said, adding that for every Croatian citizen, Vukovar is a place of identification with the suffering of all victims, with the courage and sacrifice of Croatian defenders and the process of gaining Croatian independence and sovereignty.

He said that the exhibition was a contribution to the numerous activities marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of Vukovar.

We will try, he said, to pass, through support and patronage, the meaning, value, and symbolism of Vukovar on to young generations.

The exhibition "Freedom is Called by Its Name" pays tribute to the hero city of Vukovar on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of Vukovar in the Homeland War, said NSK director Ivanka Stričević.

Stričević stressed that in addition to offering insight into the materials about the Homeland War in Vukovar, the exhibition also offers insight into the materials of all library collections.

The exhibition features photographs, books, manuscripts, newspaper articles, and other materials that the NSK and partner institutions keep in their collections -- materials that testify to the suffering of Vukovar, as well as to its rich culture.

The central part of the exhibition consists of texts by historian and curator of the exhibition, Vlatka Filipčić Maligec, which provide insight into the battle for Vukovar, especially the events at the Vukovar hospital, Ovčara, the barracks, Borovo Selo, and Borovo Naselje in 1991.

The texts are accompanied by photographs by Croatian photojournalists and covers of Večernji List daily, which are testimonies of the war in Vukovar and the fate of Vukovar citizens during the Homeland War, as well as by library materials on the war in Vukovar from the NSK collection on Homeland War.

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