THE KLOVIĆEVI DVORI GALLERY
The Klovićevi dvori Gallery is one of the most important cultural institutions in Croatia. With its broad scope of activities, encompassing artistic and cultural phenomena from prehistory to modernity, and by engaging with a variety of topics and original approaches, the Klovićevi dvori Gallery continues to intrigue domestic and foreign audiences. From its foundation in 1982, the Klovićevi dvori Gallery, then called the Museum Space (Muzejski prostor), has been the pioneer in taking major steps on the Croatian artistic and cultural scene.
On its four stories of exhibition space, the Gallery sets up to 30 exhibitions a year, which are visited by hundreds of thousands. The high quality of exhibition programs is achieved by introducing innovative approaches, selecting intricate subjects and styles of presentation, as well as applying new technological advances to gallery spaces. With its exhibition program, the Klovićevi dvori Gallery promotes historical and cultural heritage, as well as contemporary art. Some of its most important projects realized in recent years were the exhibitions: Dora Maar and Picasso: Touch of Views; Van Gogh, Mondrian and the Hague School of Painting; Marc Chagall – Tale of Tales; Pompeii – Life in the Shadow of Vesuvius; Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese – the Great Masters of the Renaissance; Edgar Degas, Sculptures; Giulio Clovio, the Greatest Miniaturist of the Renaissance; Masterpieces from the Picasso Museum, Paris; The Challenge of Modernism: Zagreb – Vienna around 1900; Catherine the Great – Empress of All Russians; ARS ET VIRTUS Croatia – Hungary. 800 Years of Shared Cultural Heritage; ROOTS AND WINGS. VLAHO BUKOVAC IN ZAGREB, CAVTAT AND VIENNA, 1893 – 1903 and many others.
The Klovićevi dvori Gallery is situated in the building complex of a former Jesuit Monastery, the construction of which began in the 17th century. In the 1980s, the monastery building was restored and since 1982 it has been an exhibition venue. Right from the early eighties, the Gallery boldly began to launch major cultural projects, previously unfathomable in Croatia. The Gallery opened with the works of Albrecht Dürer, Dušan Džamonja, and Oton Gliha. Soon after, it astonished the audience with the first ever look into the riches of the Zagreb Cathedral Treasury. The retrospective exhibition of the sculptor Ivan Meštrović was another achievement of the 1980s, but the definite highlight, with which the Gallery dazzled the European audience, was the exhibition on Ancient Chinese Culture. Visitors soon came pouring in, in hundreds of thousands.
The Gallery opened its doors to, and was the first in Croatia to promote comics, caricatures and illustration. It also founded the Croatian Biennale of Illustration. To Zagreb, the Klovićevi dvori Gallery brought the works of Picasso, Van Gogh, Mondrian, Miró, Vasarely, Chagall, Degas, Monet, Kandinsky, and a plethora of artists of the famous German Expressionism and the Russian Avant-garde. On several occasions the Gallery successfully showcased the Croatian historical heritage and contemporary art to Europe and the world. For its domestic audience, it unveiled previously unknown artistic heritage: numerous church treasuries, exquisite artworks kept by monastic orders, it presented the Dalmatian Hinterland as an undiscovered land, and Slavonia, Baranja, and Srijem as the sources of European civilization. The Gallery was the first to evaluate the bodies of work of Croatian modern artists: Emanuel Vidović, Leo Junek, Slava Raškaj, Jozo Kljaković, Robert Auer, Vlaho Bukovac, Mate Celestin Medović, and Menci Clement Crnčić. It also offered the first cultural synthesis of the Croatian avant-garde and Croatian Expressionism, together with the first synthesized presentation of the Greek and Classical Roman heritage on Croatian territory.
Our further development and program strategy will encompass international exhibition projects and their contextualization in the strands of Croatian art history, as well as the affirmation and promotion of art production in Croatia together with its recognition in Europe and the world. The professional nature of our activities and our serious approach to artistic heritage has been awarded many times and recognized by state institutions, the media and, above all, by our faithful audience.
