Art workshops for children from 6 to 15 years old
With the opening of the grand exhibition of Ivan Meštrović, Artionica is starting its sculpting workshops.
Registration is required at: artionica@gkd.hr
The exhibition of our renowned artist, sculptor Ivan Meštrović, will be a great inspiration for our creative work over the next three months. We will follow his artistic development from the sculptural works of his boyhood all the way to mature achievements. It would be difficult to follow Meštrović’s work without knowing his public and private life, since almost every single one of his sculptures is a reflection of his personal experiences, insights and feelings. Meštrović’s life and creativity will be brought closer to us by contemporary artists, mostly sculptors: Gašparuš Andrija, Medarda Pack, Alana Kajfež, Tomislav Hršak, Josipa Pentić, Petra Kovačić, Velibor Mačukatin, Irena Podvorac, Duje Medić, Petar Dolić, Ana Sladetić Šabić, Miran Šabić, Hrvoje Dumančić, Iva Japec, Fran Marko Vlahinić.
–
1. CHARCOAL DRAWING WORKSHOP
November 25, 2023: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m
Ivan Meštrović received his first lessons in stone-masonry in Split in the stone-masonry workshop of Pavle Bilinić. Simultaneously, his wife Regina taught him how to draw. A good sculptor is assumed, by default, to be a good draftsman, since the drawing is the first visible form of the artist’s vision, regardless of the final medium in which that vision is realized. Although Meštrović modestly emphasized that drawing was not his job, he left behind an oeuvre of 1500 drawings listed so far, be they sketches, studies, sketches, or drawings that became works of art in their own right.
Guest artist: Andrija Gašparuš, sculptor
–
2. WOODEN RELIEF-MAKING WORKSHOP
December 2, 2023: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m
From his earliest days, Ivan Meštrović used wood for sculpting. He created many religion-themed works in wood. He used it again while he was working in Switzerland when he began a cycle of 28 wooden reliefs with scenes from the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The work Entrance to Jerusalem (1941) was part of that cycle, exhibited thirty years later (1954) in the church of the Holy Cross in Crikvina-Kaštilac.
Guest artist: Medarda Pack, sculptor, designer
–
3. SCULPTURE WORKSHOP – HANDS
December 9, 2023: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
The study of Grgur Ninski’s hand inspired us to choose this topic. In recent years, it has been shown how important our hands are when we are denied handshakes, touches, hugs. Meštrović emphasized the hands on the majority of sculptures because his focus was precisely on the human figure, gestures and expression, from women and angels playing music, scientists taking the pose of a thinker leaning on their hands, palms, to the tender hands of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus in her arms or a mother embracing her children. We know that every thumbprint is different, so we could say that the hand is our portrait, while people also say: Fate is in your hands!
Guest artist: Alana Kajfež, sculptor, designer, glass artist
–
4. SCULPTURE WORKSHOP – THE WELL OF LIFE
December 16, 2023: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
The public monument Well of Life will serve as the inspiration for the creation of a thin sheet relief. Human bodies are intertwined in a kneeling position, and the circular composition leads us to tour the sculpture, where we can see a relief frieze of four pairs of naked men and women, an old man and a child.
Guest artists: Tomislav Hršak, sculptor and Josipa Pentić, painter
–
5. SCULPTURE WORKSHOP – MAKING RELIEFS FROM SKETCH
January 13, 2024: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
The first fully finished sacral and architectural work of art by Ivan Meštrović was the mausoleum housing the Račićes, a family of shipowners, was built from 1920 to 1922,. The mausoleum has an octagonal floor plan with chapels positioned in the shape of a Greek cross. The interior is rich with stylized sculptures and reliefs. The altar niche is decorated with reliefs of angel musicians; their design was inspired by young men who are just waking up to life.
Guest artist: Velibor Mačukatin Jr., sculptor
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
6. SCULPTURE WORKSHOP – MOVEMENT (FEELING) TRAPPED IN THE MASS
January 20, 2024: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
In the 1920s, Meštrović’s interest in depicting the female body became pronounced. The human body was his constant inspiration. The sculptures are either designed in a closed form or are shown with relaxed bodies not making any sudden movements.
Guest artist: Irena Podvorac, sculptor
–
–
–
–
–
—
–
–
–
–
–
7. SCULPTURE WORKSHOP – PORTRAITS (SELF-PORTRAITS) OF IVAN MEŠTROVIĆ
January 27th, 2024: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Portraits of Ivan Meštrović and his family can be seen collectively on the cast-bronze doors of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, that is, the tomb of the Meštrović family on the top of the hill above Otavice. The doors were stolen during the Homeland War and have not been found to this day, but in our exhibition we have several self-portraits of Meštrović and portraits of his wives and children, friends, and acquaintances.
ASSIGNMENT: Portraits of Meštrović’s family will be our inspiration when working on portraits of our close family members. We will model in clay the bust of mom or dad, grandma or grandpa, brother or sister, friend… because we know them best when they are happy or sad, pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised, sometimes scared or amazed by something beautiful, we will choose one of those expressions and convey the expression, first on paper and then modeled in clay. You can help yourself by taking photos of them before the workshop when you “catch” them with the suggested facial expressions!
Guest artist: Velibor Mačukatin Jr., ac. sculptor
—
8. SCULPTURE WORKSHOP – DECORATIVE PEDESTAL
February 3rd, 2024: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
The columns were installed as independent works of art in the function of a pedestal for a pot or vase with flowers. The sculptural decoration is adapted to the shape of the column. They were executed in Art Nouveau style in high relief.
TASK: Transforming a block into a sculpture as a part of architectural plastic in order to achieve a whole.
Guest artist: Duje Medić, graphic artist, painter
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
9. SCULPTURE WORKSHOP – What if the sculpture is a RELIEF?
February 10th, 2024: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m
In previous workshops, we learned that a relief is a sculpture that is shaped only from the front and the sides. We distinguish several types of relief: reclining, low and high. We will once again go in search of such reliefs at our exhibition, and learn the differences in types of reliefs.
Guest artist: Petar Dolić, ac. sculptor ASSIGNMENT: Making reliefs in clay
10. LITHOGRAPHY WORKSHOP – PRONTO PLATE LITHOGRAPHY
February 17th, 2024: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m
Meštrović’s first graphic works were created immediately after his studies in Vienna. Meštrović was friends with Tomislav Krizman, who studied graphics, so it can be assumed that Ivan also tried to work with graphic techniques.
ASSIGNMENT: Lithography is a graphic technique that uses stone as a matrix, but in this workshop, we will use acrylic plates instead of stone. We have never done that before and we are all very curious about how it will all work out!
Guest artists: Ana Sladetić Šabić and Miran Šabić, ac. graphic artists
11. SCULPTURE WORKSHOP – PUBLIC MONUMENTS OF IVAN MEŠTROVIĆ
February 24th, 2024: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m
On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of the great European humanist and father of Croatian literature Marko Marulić (August 18, 1450 – January 5, 1524), the year 2024 was declared the Year of Marko Marulić in Croatia. Ivan Meštrović designed the monument of Marko Marulić, which was placed in front of the Milesi Palace in Split. Meštrović used his own face as a model for the monument, which further underlined his belonging to the Dalmatian cultural circle.
ASSIGNMENT: making a study of the details of the portrait of Marko Marulić
Guest artist: Andrija Gašparuš, ac. sculptor
12. SCULPTURE WORKSHOP – MUSIC AND INSTRUMENT
March 2nd, 2024: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m
After the end of the First World War, motifs of female musicians appear in the works of Ivan Meštrović. They arise from the desire and aspiration for universal harmony. Meštrović’s experience of the world becomes poetic, as he wrote: My newer works, those with musical and melodic motifs, were born from the desire for general harmony. They are an expression of the desire and feeling of harmony between us and all things.
TASK: reinterpreting the gesture of playing an instrument or modeling your own work inspired by Meštrović’s work, modeling in clay.
Guest artists: Iva Japec and Fran Marko Vlahinić, sculpture students, ALU Zagreb
-jjčljlll
Text: Liljana Velkovski
Museum advisor, museum educator, Artionica workshop manager
