Klovićevi dvori Gallery, Jezuitski trg 4
Tuesday - Sunday 11:00 - 19:00
28. April 2026.
An exhibition of selected works from the Slavko Kopač collection can be viewed at Mala galerija (Klovićevi dvori Gallery, 2nd floor) from April 28, 2026.
Slavko Kopač collection at the Klovićevi dvori Gallery
At the request of the artist Slavko Kopač (1913-1995), the Klovićevi dvori Gallery (then the Museum Space) became the proud owner of a valuable collection of seventy of his works in 1993. The collection was later enriched with new donations and thus offers a complete insight into his entire creative work, from the first watercolors (Zagreb vedutas), with which he entered the world of Croatian modern painting after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts, through works from the years spent in Italy to fragile paintings-sculptures, miniature ceramics and papier-mache from the 1960s, those mature Parisian creations that we most often evoke when we think of Kopač.
A student of Becić and a follower of Račić, Kraljević and Junek, the young Kopač boldly and freely structures the painting, elaborates on color, drawing and smearing. His stay in Italy, and especially his trip to Paris and meeting Jean Dubuffet, encouraged him in his aspirations to completely abandon classical academic postulates. Kopač’s works were inhabited with human figures and animals, harmless bestiary and cheerful idols, ordinary objects and events inspired by nature and childhood stories, placed in playful compositions and unexpected spatial relationships. The desire for spontaneity and immediacy led him to the very edge of figurativeness. Color became independent, freed from the burden of form, smearing became denser and texture impenetrable.
The usual art tools and processes were soon joined by an unlimited range of unusual natural and artificial materials used in unexpected ways. Sand, earth, cement and plaster will be mixed in paint and glass, wire, fabric or parts of car tires will be applied to the wooden base – all combined into distinctive layered collages and reliefs. Equally important to him were the drawing and the spread, the decisive graphics of ink and pen, and the fluidity and elusiveness of watercolor. Such correlations of materials, application, collage, imprinting in the substrate and scratching of matter, constant questioning, search for new things and escape from routine led him to step into space – to sculptures.
Kopač used to say that his works were never finished. They will be finished by the one who watches them. Then the second and third and all those who come after will continue the same game. Therefore, continue the game he started and enjoy Kopač’s works.
