The beautiful seventeenth-century building of Klovićevi Dvori in Zagreb’s Upper Town (Gornji grad) is a piece of art itself. However, as this seventeenth century Jesuit monastery became one of the most known and respected art galleries in the whole country, you can expect plenty of art inside too.
If you have doubts (or you trust the statement completely and you want to enjoy some visual eye-candy), hop over to the venue at Jezuitski Trg 4 (Jesuit Square 4), for the monographic exhibition ”Monument to a Living Person” that will be on until October 12.
The author of the exhibition is the art historian Dr. Frano Dulibić who gathered and displayed the work of the iconic Croatian painter Tisja Kraković Braić.
“Tisja Kljaković Braić has been part of the art scene for the last twenty years. After twenty years of dedicated work, there are many reasons to present the artist through a compilation of her best and most characteristic artwork. The exhibition at the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery will present her work from its initial phase of art brut painting, as well as her lyric, poetic paintings, sculptures, and drawings,” Bulić said when explaining the motive of his display, as is written on Klovićevi Dvori’s official website.
TCN readers may recall an interview with Kljaković Braić back in 2020 as she authored a book of caricatures on Dalmatian life entitled ”ONI” (They).
Scene from the “Monument to a Living Person” © Galerija Klovićevi dvori
”ONI” are not left out in this exhibition either, and twenty years of Braić’s work has made her art noted for its simple lines and shapes that gaze at you with openness, brazenness, honesty, and humor. It has been rated as primitive but certainly not in a bad way, quite on the contrary, due to effective ”waking up” seen as a response from onlookers.
”With her primitivism, Tisja builds on many artistic paragons, from Paul Klee to Alberto Giacometti and Jean Dubuffet, who left significant marks on the art world. Nowadays, due to negative cultural implications, the art world seeks to avoid the term ”primitivism” and appropriately replace it. At this point, the inevitable question arises: what is it in primitivist art forms that lures contemporary artists towards it, in a time of so many different art movements and ‘…isms’ passing us by?
The answer lies in an aspiration for disassociation from the frantic chase after something new and yet unseen, and an association with what is original, archetypal, primordial, and uncorrupted, that is, with the age when everything began,” concludes Dulibić. Valentina Bach is the curator of this exhibition which is located on the first floor of Klovićevi Dvori. The gallery is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 11:00 – 19:00.
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