Moderna galerija (MG)

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Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana

Tomšičeva 14, SI-1000 Ljubljana

http://www.mg-lj.si/

info@mg-lj.si

Phone386 (0) 1 241 6800, 386 (0) 1 241 6834

Founded byMinistry of Culture

Zdenka Badovinac, Director

zdenka.badovinac@mg-lj.si

Events abroad

Past Events

• 3 Dec 2018

  USA New York Museum of Modern Art

  
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  A lecture/panel with art historian Beti Žerovc (Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana) entitled Learning from Yugoslavia in the frame of the exhibition Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980

  
  

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The Moderna galerija (Museum of Modern Art) in Ljubljana is the Slovene national museum of modern and contemporary art, runing the main exibiting activity in the recently renovated main building on Tomšičeva 14, next to Tivoli park, re-opend with the retrospective of Zoran Mušič in November 2009. Additionally Moderna galerija manage Mala Gallery on Slovenska cesta 35 as the exhibitig platform for artists' personal presentations and for innovative presentation methods. In the domain of Moderna galerija is as well the building on Metelkova 22, recently in the renovation.

Future

After the renovation of edefice Metelkova 22 the Moderna galerija is going to split into two segments: the location on Tomšičeva 14 will be as the Museum of Modern Art from then on focused just on the art of the 20th-century modernism and contemporary works disseminating modernistic ideas, location on Metelkova 22 will become the domicile of Museum of Contemporary Art. Beside the actual programme, the main mission of both institutions officialy defined as the museums, they will presents collections: first one the collection of Slovene 20th-century art and the second the international collection Arteast 2000+.

History

Designed by architect Edvard Ravnikar (1907-1993), before he went to study to Le Courbusier in Paris, stil following the classicist principles of Jože Plečnik, the museum was founded in 1947 on the initiative of art historian, critic, writer and diplomat Dr. Izidor Cankar, following receipt of a generous grant from the heirs of industrialist Dragotin Hribar.

Over the years the Moderna galerija has presented numerous important exhibitions, many of which have been pivotal in the development of Slovene art. These have included Slovene Impressionism exhibition of 1949, which constituted an important victory over extreme ideological dogma; the exhibition of Riko Debenjak and Stane Kregar of 1953, which brought abstract art to a wider audience; the Henry Moore exhibition of 1955, which gave powerful stimulus to modernist tendencies; and the first Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic Art of the same year, which began the important tradition of the International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana.

Recently, the significance of the international exhibition programme in the work of the Moderna galerija has grown considerably and major names in the contemporary world art are regularly presented in individual and group exhibitions like Body and the East - From the 1960s to the Present (1998), Form Specific/Arteast Exhibition (2003), 7Sins: Moscow Ljubljana (curated by Zdenka Badovinac, Victor Misiano and Igor Zabel), Interrupted Histories (2006), Every man is a curator/ Jeder Mensh ist ein Kurator!(2007). Since 1994 Moderna galerija organize U3 Triennial of Contemporary Slovene Arts.

Permanent Collection

Charged with studying, collecting and presenting 20th-century Slovene art, Moderna galerija is responsible for maintaining and constantly developing the national collection of 20th-century and 21st-century Slovene art. Moderna galerija holdings contained in 2009: 502 sculptures, 1301 paintings, 3079 prints by Slovene and foreign artists, 11.069 drawings, approximately 2.000 photographies and some new media art works, video and internet projects.

Before the renovation the permanent collection of Moderna galerija was staged through rooms, each have had its focus: Room 1 foeatured the beginnings and development of Modernist forms in Slovene art since the early 1950s, with a special focus on the traditions of the Intimist and the fantastic figurative art in Slovenia. Room 2 presented fully-developed Modernist art from the 1950s and 1960s, both abstract and figurative. Room 3 presented works from the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, beginning with examples of new figurative art, geometric abstraction and avant garde works, continuing with ‘primal’ and ‘fundamental’ abstract works from the mid-1970s and concluding with Neo-Expressionist and New Image art from the first half of the 1980s. Finally, Room 4 focused on contemporary artistic creativity from the past decade, featuring pieces by several internationally-acclaimed Slovene artists of the younger generation, including Jože Barši, Mirko Bratuša, Vuk Ćosić, Bojan Gorenec, Tomaž Gregorič, Irwin, Bogoslav Kalaš, Janez Janša (formerly known as Žiga Kariž), Dušan Kirbiš, Marko Kovačič, Neue Slowenische Kunst (see Neue Slowenische Kunst - NSK State), Marko Peljhan (see Projekt Atol Institute), Tadej Pogačar and the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art (PMCA), Marjetica Potrč, Zora Stančič, Apolonija Šušteršič, Lujo Vodopivec, VSSD and Žarko Vrezec.

Since 1991 the Moderna galerija has also collected photographs by Slovene photographers from the period between the two world wars, works by contemporary Slovene photographers and works by some international photographers who have exhibited at the Moderna galerija (Thierry Girard, Timo Kelaranta, Cesare Pietroiusti, Armin Linke, Andres Serrano). Because of their importance and quantity, the works of Fran Krašovec (1892-1969), considered the pioneer of modern photography in Slovenia, represent a large part of the collection. Currently, the whole Photography collection is approximately 2.000 prints strong.

A collection of new media art is currently taking shape through acquisition of video works, films, moving pictures installations, and Internet projects. It already comprises representative works that are good examples of the development of media art in Slovenia and present, despite their relatively small number, a varied picture in terms of generation, expression and technological approach.

International collection

In the 1990s Moderna galerija began to assemble its international collection Arteast 2000+, a collection of works mainly by Eastern European artists. Its goals are to present Eastern European art, which has been overlooked until now, to establish a dialogue between Eastern and Western European artists and in this way create a new, different view on the development of art in the second half of the 20th century.

Another line of the international collection of the gallery comprise art works from the 1990s: Miroslaw Balka, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Cristina Iglesias, Anish Kapoor and Ulf Rollof and others. The third line of Moderna galerija international collection comprise 136 works of 20th-century artists from the territories of former Yugoslavia, including important works by artists such as Jovan Bijelić, Dusan Džamonja, Oton Gliha, Ljubo Ivančić, Frano Kršinić, Petar Lubarda, Nikola Martinoski, Ivan Mestrović, Pedja Milosavljević, Milo Milunović, Frano Šimunović, Miroslav Šutej, Marino Tartaglia, Rudolf Valdec, Vladimir Veličković and Lazar Vozarević.

Programme

In addition to its role as a museum, Moderna galerija also functions as a temporary exhibition gallery which hosts retrospective exhibitions of work by key Slovene artists of the 20th century, as well as exhibitions of contemporary domestic and foreign art. During the renovation of Moderna galerija (december 2007 - april 2009) the project Hosting MG! was accomplished on 20 location around Slovenia of different kind of activities which aimed to mitigate the negative effects that the suspension of the gallery's activities had during two years period on modern and contemporary art in Slovenia. As well the project was a kind of appeal to institutions and individuals working in the field of contemporary art to establish a networking platform to facilitate easier communication and collaboration.

Moderna galerija incorporates a Documentation Department which collects, processes and publishes documentary and archival material relating to modern Slovene art. It also runs an Information Centre which functions as an important resource for modern and contemporary Slovene art, and a Library which collects books, catalogues and all other relevant publications.

Finally, Moderna galerija performs an important educational function which includes lectures, screenings, guided tours and workshops. It is increasingly involved in work with pre-school children and with students in primary and secondary schools.

See also

• U3 Triennial of Contemporary Slovene Arts
• MJ Manifesta Journal
• Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory

External links

• Moderna galerija website
• Arteast 2000+ permanent collection's website
• Interview with director Zdenka Badovinac in ARTMargins
• About director Z. Badovinac on Wikipedia