Thanks to the international project of digitization of European heritage – Partage Plus, more than 5.000 objects from the Croatian Art Nouveau period is available online on leading internet portal for culture of the European Union – Europeana. 

Art Nouveau, one of the last universal styles reflected in all branches of art was inspired by nature, with identifiable curvilinear form and ornamentation of flat lines on the facades of buildings and on everyday use items. It became the characteristic of the time that aspired to combine art and craft and at the turn of the century to unite Europe in a single unique artistic style. Although in time somewhat forgotten because of the styles of Modernism, Secession is now more popular than ever. It is well represented in museum collections, archives, libraries and buildings throughout Europe, and is known under the names of Art Nouveau, Liberty Style, Modernism, Secession, Arte Nova, Style 1900 and Jugendstil.

The object of Partage Plus – Digitising and Enabling Art Nouveau for Europeana was to unite and digitize the whole of European heritage of the Art Nouveau period and make it more familiar to the large European public. In this project, more than 75.000 Art Nouveau objects, artworks, posters, and buildings and 2.000 3D models has been digitized. Croatia has contributed to the project with 5176 objects and 135 3D models.

I don’t know if you noticed, but when there’s a big gap between blog posts, the first sentence usually starts with “It’s been a while since my last post, but…” Admittedly, my previous blog entry was published last year so it does make sense to use the phrase here, but I’ll skip it 🙂

Here are a couple of drawings I did in the meantime.

 

Ok, this one is obviously not a drawing. It is work in progress, halfway done   

 

 

Behance is one of the popular platforms to showcase illustration, photography, graphic design and fashion. I noticed that many of the illustrators and designers whose work I personally admire display their online portfolios there.  So, I took the opportunity to create and manage my own online portfolio. The difference between my website and my Behance page is primarily in the works I choose to display. My website valentinoradman.com feature fine oil paintings and is made to attract potential clients and buyers, while on Behance I display my illustrations, drawings, photography and works in progress…in short – all the stuff I do besides fine art.

 link to  My Behance page

While Sotheby’s New York sale of 19th Century European Art went to auction yesterday, their London sale of 19th Century European Paintings will not go on the block until later this month, that is – on November 20th.  The sale comprises 115 lots, and, as is per usual with these London sales, features artists of great interest to collectors on the European continent.

This medium sized Bukovac is lot 23, and though it doesn’t rank among his top tier works, the estimated prize is  £  25,000 — 35,000 ($ 40,000-55,000).

In the Budoir, 59 by 48cm

Until December 8th, the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery in Zagreb will be the venue for the exhibition “Allegory and Arcadia – Ancient Motifs in Croatian Modernism”. The exhibition features pieces by great Croatian painters and sculptors, whose work was inspired by ancient motifs, some of which were never exhibited before and are largely unknown to the general public.

The special attraction of the exhibition is Bela Čikoš Sesija’s painting “Kirka”, which is one of the most important paintings of Croatian modern art. It was bought by the Hungarian government for its National Gallery during the Millennium Exhibition of 1896 in Budapest, and it has not been exhibited in Croatia until now.

Visitors of the exhibition will also have a unique opportunity to see the nude “Andromeda” by Vlaho Bukovac, borrowed from the National Gallery of Ljubljana, Slovenia,  as well as works by many other great Croatian painters which have been gathered from various museums and galleries, including “Bachanal” by Mate Celestin Medović.

Apart from masterpieces by Vlado Bukovac, Mate Celestin Medović, Bela Čikoš Sesija, Ivan Tišov and Robert Auer, visitors of the exhibition will have the opportunity to view sculptures by Croatian sculptors Robert Frangeš Mihanović, Rudolf Valdec, Ivo Kerdić and Ivan Meštrović.

Artists top-down, l-r (click for enlargements):

Vlaho Bukovac (above the text), Robert Auer (Festive Day) & Vlaho Bukovac (Young Patrician Lady) , Bela Csikos Sessia (Innocence), Vlaho Bukovac (Andromeda) & Robert Auer (Before the Bath), Ivan Tišov (Scientiae Naturales – Scientiae Scholasticae), Mate Celestin Medović (Bacchanal), Robert Auer (Athena Parthenos), two portrait sculptures by Robert Frangeš Mihanović and two sculptures by Ivan Meštrović.

  

 

 

Ivan Meštrović was one of the most important sculptors of the first third of 20th century. He is renowned as possibly the greatest sculptor of religious subject matter since the Renaissance, the first living person to have a one man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and London’s Victoria & Albert Museum (check my entry about the latter here. )

An exhibition of his works has been opened this week in the Zadar’s City Lodge. It was organized on the occasion of the 130th birth anniversary of  Meštrović. Here are some of the works on display:

  

On this link you can see photos (credits to their author) taken at the recently closed Meštrović’s exhibition in Musée Rodin in Paris.

I wrote several times about Croatian turn-of-the-century painters, both modernists and “traditionalists”, for instance here, here  and here.

A couple of weeks ago I came across a small booklet containing drawings by Croatian artists who studied at Munich Academy in 19th or in the beginning of 20th century. Those works are either student drawings done in a class, sketchbook field studies, caricatures or preparatory drawings for larger compositions. Unfortunately majority of reproductions are rather small in size. Here are the largest ones (click for enlargement).

The artists are (top-bottom): Menci Klement Crnčić (1902), Mato Celestin Medović – two studies (1893), Miroslav Kraljević – Self portrait (1909), Oskar Herman (1906), Nikola Mašić – sketchbook drawing (1890), Bella Csikos Sessia – preparatory drawing (1893)

Each work of art in the Grand Prize round received the highest number of votes throughout the bi-weekly contests, but this time there’s only one artist who will walk away with the Grand Prize package.  My drawing “Antonia” is one of the finalists.

Voting is now open  HERE   My work is #13.

The artist whose work receives the highest number of votes by June 16, 2013 at 11:59 pm EST will be awarded the Grand Prize package. Not only will the winner receive art books, instructional art videos, art supplies and equipment, but will also have their work seen in three major art magazines (Fine Art Connoisseur, Plein Air and Southwest Art) as well as a full feature article in Artists on Art online magazine.

Click on any of the thumbnail images (those fifteen in the middle) to get a closer look at each work of art. The enlarged image will display all of the information needed for voting, including an assigned entry number for each piece. Once you’ve decided on a favorite, scroll down to the voting box at the bottom of the page and cast your vote. Only one vote per computer or mobile device is allowed.

ARC International Salon Competition 2012/2013 winners have been announced. In this year’s competition a jury had to select the best works among 2000 submissions from more than 850 international artists. I have sent a portrait drawing done in sanguine/white chalk and am honored to be selected as a finalist for this prestigious award.

Zdravko Dučmelić (1923-1989) was one of those outstanding, yet lesser known artists. He was born in Vinkovci, Croatia and have studied painting in Zagreb, Rome and Madrid (Real Academia de San Fernando), and in 1949 emigrated to Argentina. From 1963 to 1966 he was director of Escuela Superior de Artes de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.

Dučmelić masterfully illustrated a famous book “Laberintos” (Labyrinths), written by Jorge Luis Borges (Ed. De Arte Gaglianone, Buenos Aires, 1983), with his surreal, quasi-metaphysical works.
He also made various portraites of Borges (with whom he befriended) that were exhibited in 1987. In 1980 Dučmelić has been invited by Argentinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to realize expositions of his works in several museums in Japan: in Tokio, Kyoto, Aomori and Kamatura. Besides in Japan, Dučmelić had exhibitions in Panama, Peru (Lima), Chile (Santiago), Mexico, Cuba (Habana), Canada (Ottawa) and China (Bejing). In 1983 he had exhibitions in his homeland, in Zagreb and Rijeka.

Unfortunately, high quality images of his works are very difficult to find, so here are several examples ranging from poor to medium quality. The second drawing is one of the portraits of Jorge Luis Borges from the 1987 exhibition.