Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška

As a central regional gallery institution Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts, Slovenj Gradec has been from the very beginning the platform for the diverse contemporary arts programme 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 an established practice in Slovene galleries. Several famous artists of the fifties, sixties and seventies like Henry Moore, Ossip Zadkine, Daniel Buren and Victor Vassarely were exhibiting there. Some of their works are now part of the gallery's collection with more than 1000 artworks.

Ambitions of bringing Slovenj Gradec, small town on the fringe of Slovenia with not more than approximately 8.300 inhabitants, to the international map of art and by associating Slovene and international artist continued effectively under the guidance of Milena Zlatar, paying much attention on the engaged art. In 2008 Marko Košan overtook the directing, 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

The institution was established on ideas and endeavours similar to Arnold Bode idea of establishing Documenta in Kassel in 1955, so to create fine arts centre out of a rural town like Slovenj Gradec. First exhibition was launched allready in 1954 and entitled Swedisch kitchen. The gallery was officialy established in 1957 having its own exhibition space in old town hall on Glavni trg. In the year 1966 was built the edifice, where the gallery operates and exhibits till nowdays. In the same year the gallery's activities received the honorary patronage of the United Nations (1966, 1975, 1979, 1985 and 1991).

Collections

Gallery´s collection focuses on the regional authors, but includes also several donations, bequests and purchases of international authors. Since its establishing the gallery has been building up a "museum of social aesthetics". Parts of collection are on view temporarily, some works also within various exhibitions. There are several segments of the collection with more than 1000 art works:

Hommage to Jože Tisnikar

Painter Jože Tisnikar (1928-1998) matured as an artist while working in a hospital pathology department. 43 paintings and drawings are best defined by the term "dark modernism" and together with documentary material on the artist's life, reveal Tisnikar's world, examining his iconographic theme of death.

Permanent collection of painter Bogdan Borčić

International collection

The collection includes the works by Ossip Zadkine, Victor Vasarely, Maria Bonomi, Toon Wegner, Gene Chu and Paolo Minoli. It consists of paintings, prints, photographs, original architectural drawings, statues, and documentary material on installations, including performances.

Slovene art of the 19th and 20th Century

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, Anton Dolenc, Vida Slivniker, Harald Draušbaher, Štefan Marflak, Naca Rojnik, Peter Hergold 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. The collection includes also some works of former Yugoslav authors.

Collection of social aestetics of Pino Poggi

Works by Italian artist Pino Poggi (donated in 1998) provide the basis for a developing International Museum of Social Aesthetics.

Collection of Franc Tretjak alias African Collection

Dr. Franc Tretjak spent nearly 20 years in Africa as an economic consultant of the United Nations and donated to Slovenj Gradec 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).

Open-air collection

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.

Exhibition programme

The gallery has organised several repercussive international exhibitions and events, starting mid 70s. In 1979 the International fine art exhibition exposed the problems of the socialisation of art and psycho-formation, it dealt with the peripheral areas of fine art, and touched upon the alternatives in contemporary architecture in the seventies. The exhibition featuring works from the Ossip Zadkine's collection in Paris took place in 1991. The sculpture Memorial to the Apologist of Cubism - the Poet Guillame Apollinaire (1937, bronze), which Zadkine presented as a gift to Slovenj Gradec at the first international fine art exhibition in 1966, was transferred from Paris - with the permission of the foundation - as late as 1990, and in the same year it took its place in the atrium of the gallery.

In the last 20 years the gallery has featured various thematic international exhibitions (The Artist and an Urban Environment in 1997, The Kitchen - From the Idea to Excession (1954 - 2004) in 2004, 2 LIVE on the dilemmas of our existence and being, sixty years since the end of World War II in 2005 - here the primary focus was on the photography - medium that decisively marked the 20th century, Thread [Nit] with 33 Slovene and foreign artists, curated by Maja Škerbot, marked the 50th Anniversary of the Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts in 2007). In 2008 Jernej Kožar and Rado Poggi curated Necessary Discourse on Hysteria on the issue of social hysteria with the artists experiencing the process of an exhibition-installation, and in the remaining three weeks joined performances, discussions, theatre, talks, speeches and video works.

Small Gallery for artists of the Koroška region

Initiated by the new director Marko Košan a new room has been opened in 2009 in order to be more attentive on the regional artists.

In 2009 the project Libri of italian sculpturer and politicaly engaged conceptualist Pino Poggi, being tightly connected with Slovenj Gradec, was on view, followed by the newest setting of the project At the Golden Thigh [Pri zlatem stegnu] by authors Nataša and Katja Skušek, and Mladen Stropnik.

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