Great Exhibition of Ivan Meštrović at the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery

The Klovićevi Dvori Gallery, in the year of the 140th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Meštrović, from November 22 to March 3, presents a ‘memorable exhibition’ across three floors, featuring more than two hundred selected exhibits arriving from around the world.

Antonio Picukarić, director of the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery, stated at a press conference on Friday that this is, during his term, the largest and most significant exhibition, not only in terms of the number and dimensions of the exhibits but also because it concerns the greatest artist.

– We will conduct the campaign outside Croatia, in the countries of the region, as well as in Hungary, Italy, Austria – announced Picukarić, signing a contract with OTP Bank, the general sponsor of the exhibition, which Klovićevi Dvori organizes with the Museums.

Balazs Bekeffy, CEO of OTP Bank, expressed satisfaction that they can commemorate the anniversary of Meštrović’s birth, but also help young generations get closer to his works, giving them the opportunity to see what was created more than a hundred years ago.

Sandra Grčić Budimir, director of the Ivan Meštrović Museum, said that this will be the last in a series of exhibitions they have prepared in the anniversary year, with plans for another exhibition of Meštrović’s drawings in his native Otavice and a multimedia program by Ivan Marušić Klif at the Meštrović Gallery in Split by the end of 2023.

– This exhibition represents an immense honor for us and evokes a sense of reverence before such a valuable legacy, the most precious and unique works of his oeuvre – she emphasized.

– Meštrović is a great and inexhaustible topic, his creativity spans several decades, continents, and media, but as he achieved the largest opus in sculpture, this exhibition focused exclusively on sculptures – said Barbara Vujanović, the exhibition’s author from the Ivan Meštrović Museum.

She explained that the exhibition will trace his sculptural development from childhood and early works, through education and international affirmation to his American days. ‘We will see the diversity of his creativity in themes, from sacred art and portraits of contemporaries to monuments in Croatia and abroad, as well as the variety of materials he worked with, in plaster, stone, wood, bronze,’ she added.

– It was not our intention to put a period on research and interpretation; the exhibition continues a series of our art historians, serving as an encouragement for a new audience to get acquainted with his work, and it will also be interesting for experts to see works from our collection, world museums, and family archives that have never been exhibited in Croatia – she noted.

Petra Vugrinec, the exhibition’s author from the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery, asserted that Meštrović’s legacy is part of the collective national identity, but also of our personal, individual identities. ‘If we have ever been proud of the various international exhibitions we have organized here as long-term curators of this gallery, I believe this is the most significant, and we present the artist of the highest rank,’ she assessed.