Zagreb Advent, as they say at Večernji, received another must-visit cultural stop. The location is a private apartment at Krležin Gvozd 23 (on the second floor of which the Croatian author Miroslav Krleža lived until his death). The famous art collector Dagmar Meneghello returned to Zagreb after almost six decades of living in Palmižana on Hvar. She brought along the works of Zagreb painters that are part of her art collection. Following the theme of Advent and the joy that comes with it, she organised an Advent exhibition in her apartment that showcases the works of Šutej, Friščić, Eterović, and for the first time in Zagreb, Ivo Ćorković.
The exhibition can be viewed every Friday and Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m. during Dagmar’s open house days. In Zagreb, the movement of collectors opening their apartments to the public to show off their art is quite a novelty. Dagmar Meneghello learned of such a lifestyle in Germany and now finds it to be normal and necessary.
Dagmar Meneghello’s art collection has about 3,000 works. It was collected over half a century, during which hundreds of artists created and exhibited at Dagmar’s home in Palmižana. Her Palmižana home was often the first contact of foreign visitors, mostly sailors, with Croatian culture and art. For fifty years, she invited artists to a tiny island, a gallery at the end of the world.
The works include numerous sculptors, from the great Kosta Angeli Radovani, Goldoni, Riba Lončarić, Kuzma Kovačić, Peruško Bogdanić to Petar Dolić and Petar Hranuelli, Alana Kajfeš, Vatroslav Kuliš, Bana Milenković, Toni Franović, Boris Demur, and Željko Jerman, to younger generations such as Paulina Jazvić, Koraljka Kovač, Nina Ivezić, Tisja Kljaković Braić. These days, numerous museums and institutions borrow and exhibit the collection.
Dagmar started her art journey at an early age while working as a journalist in Zagreb. Love took her to Palmižana, and now she started a foundation and is working to ensure that her luxurious collection gets a new permanent home.
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