Vladimir Becić

Vladimir Becić -Ispod Trebevića_1932._ulje platno_72x57 cm_vl.-Umjetnička galerija Bosne i Hercegovine Sarajevo

VLADIMIR BECIĆ

6 December 2018 – 10 March 2019

In December 2018 the Klovićevi dvori Gallery is preparing the retrospective of painter Vladimir Becić, one of the most important figures of Croatian modern art.

The authors of the exhibition concept are Professor Zvonko Maković, PhD, and curator Iva Sudec Andreis. In an attractive visual layout prepared by the authors, we wish to present Becić’s paintings that have come to Zagreb again after more than thirty years, since the last retrospective, and to offer some new details and interpretations that will give a revaluation of Becić’s extremely fruitful and rich oeuvre. Following the authors’ concept, works have been selected from many national, foreign, public and private collections which will present Becić’s entire body of painting that belongs to Croatian modern art.

Vladimir Becić_Ženski akt s novinama.,1907. ulje, platno, 100×85 cm_vl. Moderna galerija Zagreb

Thirty-five years have passed since the last Becić retrospective, and in the past decade many of his as yet unseen masterpieces have appeared which, together with new interpretations of his oeuvre, greatly change the perception about this painter, as well as about Croatian modern art from the first half of the last century.

Vladimir Becić is not by any means an unknown artist from the first half of twentieth century. Along with Miroslav Kraljević, Josip Račić and Oscar Herman, he made up a group that laid the foundations of Croatian modern art and forged closer links with Munich and later Paris, than with Vienna. Therefore these artists were known as “The Munich Circle”, which is how they are usually remembered in Croatian history of art and culture in general. Josip Račić and Miroslav Kraljević gained new importance in our art history and culture thanks to their retrospective exhibitions within the last decade. Herman’s work was also interpreted to a degree, but the place and role of Vladimir Becić was marginalized.

During World War I, Becić was a war reporter from the battlefields of Serbia and the south Balkans, reporting on the war for French illustrated magazines (L’Illustration). This aspect of his work gives a completely new picture of the artist, who later became a distinguished professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, an academician and sought-after painter of the middle-class.

In this exhibition we want to show, read and interpret Vladimir Becić in a completely new way, giving an important role to newly discovered works and archival material.