Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška

As a central regional gallery institution is Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts, Slovenj Gradec from the very beginning of its existence the platform successfully realizing its mission of preparing variegated program covering contemporary art of international, national and regional origin. It started in 1957 with ideas of local academic circles with painter and pedagogue Karel Pečko on its forefront, who conceived an ambitious programme, and invited fine arts critics to co-operate as selectors, which in the sixties was by no means established practice in Slovene galleries. Several famous stars of the fifties, sixties and seventies like Henry Moore, Ossip Zadkine, Daniel Buren and Victor Vassarely were exhibiting there. Some works of them and other artists are now building the part of the gallery collection with more than 1000 artworks.

Ambitions of bringing Slovenj Gradec, small town on the fringe of Slovenia, to the international map of art and by associating international artist with Slovenian continued effectively under the guidance of Milena Zlatar, paying much attention on the engaged art. Since 2008 Marko Košan overtook the directing of the gallery, paying more attention to regional artists, especially with the programme of in spring 2009 opened Small Gallery of Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts, but the vision of the gallery located in the pure centre of the historic town core is still the same.

History

Collection

Its international art collection is the result of donations, bequests and purchases, and consists of paintings, prints, photographs, original architectural drawings, statues, and documentary material on installations, including performances and other audio-visual forms of contemporary presentation. A range of internationally-famous artists is represented, including Ossip Zadkine, Victor Vasarely, Maria Bonomi, Toon Wegner, Gene Chu and Paolo Minoli. The installation of the international art collection is not fixed but changes several times a year, with every new installation presenting about a hundred works.

The gallery's collection of works by Slovene artists reflects several decades of the gallery's exhibitions programme, and features the work of Marko Šušteršič, France Mihelič, Riko Debenjak, Marjan Pogačnik, Božidar Jakac, Ive Šubic, Rudolf Kotnik, Kiar Meško, Dragica Čadež, Janez Boljka, Zdenko Huzjan and others. The most significant segment of the collection are works by artists who are natives of Carinthia or are in some way or another connected with the Mislinja, Drava or Mežica Valleys, namely Franjo Golob, Karel Pečko, Bogdan Borčić, Lojze Logar, Gustav Gnamuš, Rade Nikolić, Anton Dolenc, Vida Slivniker, Harald Draušbaher, Andrej Grošelj, Štefan Marflak, Miran Prodnik, Naca Rojnik, Peter Hergold and Sašo Vrabič.

The collection also presents the heritage from the 19th century onwards as well as the most recent art trends. A special place is occupied by the works of Franc Berneker (1874-1932), the first modern Slovene sculptor and fellow traveller of the impressionist painters, and by the works by painter Oskar Pistor (1865-1928), whose portraits, genre and landscape paintings establish links between the Upper Drava Valley and cosmopolitan Vienna and Munich, and also depict the landscapes of the Tyrol and Carinthia which inspired Pistor. Also featured is painter Jože Tisnikar (1928-1998), who matured as an artist while suffering traumatic experiences in a hospital pathology department and whose work is best defined by the term 'dark modernism'; 43 paintings and drawings present the artist's development from the early years to maturity and, together with documentary material on the artist's life, reveal Tisnikar's world from different angles, examining his iconographic theme of death and highlighting his particular nature.

The former Yugoslav Culture Room has a rich collection of works by Krsto Hegedušić, Vlado Jakelić, Pedja Milosavljević, Miljenko Bosanac, Zorislav Drempetić, Nikola Koydl, Robert Tanay, Seid Hasanefendić, Zvonko Lončarić, Branislav Dinić, Nikola Gvozdenović, Mića Popović, and others.

Works by Italian artist Pino Poggi (donated in 1998) provide the basis for a developing International Museum of Social Aesthetics. The permanent installation of Poggi's conceptual works is a project installation, in the sense that it presents individual segments of the artist's opus created in different media.

The gallery also contains the collection of Dr Franc Tretjak, who spent nearly 20 years in Africa as an economic consultant of the United Nations and donated to the town his African collection consisting of domestic artefacts (vessels, ladles, calebashes, fans, baskets, musical instruments, tools, arms, etc) and items which have an ethnological value (cult objects including masks and statuettes, fetishes and amulets, objects of white and black magic, Nomoli (Nomori) statues and rare 'antiques' from the African continent).

The open-air gallery on the edge of Štibuh Park is also arranged as a venue for cultural events. In the 1970s its cultural function was further enhanced with the installation of sculptures by selected artists (Ivan Meštrović, Drago Tršar, Josip Diminić, Jordan Grabuloski, Ivan Sabolić, Ratko Vulanović, Ana Bešlić, etc) under the slogan 'For Peace'. This gallery also focuses on contemporary art, and runs an important international changing exhibition programme.

Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška

History

Collection

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