Ivan Kožarić
©image: Iva Rada Jankovic
1921 - 2020
Born in Petrinja (HR), died in Zagreb (HR).
Ivan Kožarić (1921-2020) was born in Petrinja, Croatia. Having graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1947, he receives a grant in Paris, and subsequently moves there for several months.
In Paris Kožarić becomes closely acquainted with the contemporary European art of the time. Upon his return to Zagreb he joins the legendary avant-garde group Gorgona as its only sculptor. Kožarić is perhaps best known as a modernist sculptor with an idiosyncratic approach to form and narrative, but he also uses a wide variety of media, such as assemblages, proclamations, photographs, paintings and installations to create an oeuvre that does not fit into any readymade categories.
Kožarić’s fundamental contribution to Socialist Yugoslavia’s post-war avant-garde is fittingly memorialised through his presence at documenta XI in 2002, which introduces him to a wider global audience.
He sends almost his entire oeuvre, consisting of 897 sculptures, 61 paintings, 373 printed works, 10 photographs and 5297 drawings, thereby challenging not only the convention of the retrospective exhibition, but any notion of art as a static phenomenon that can be neatly organised.
According to Kožarić, art grows just like people grow. Art is alive and must evolve continually. He combines existentialist insight with the formal grammar of constructivism. Each new work questions fundamental principles of the modern sculptural tradition.
Works
>Ivan Kožarić, Pejzaž [Landscape], 2002.Print, silkscreen, 50.1 x 71 cm.
>Ivan Kožarić, Mapa serigrafija, MMII, 2002.Print, silkscreen, (x 8) 49,5 x 70 cm.
>Ivan Kožarić, Bez naziva (Untitled), 2006.Print, silkscreen, 70 x 50 cm .
>Ivan Kožarić, Pronađena skulptura [Found sculpture], 2009.Installation, wood, variable dimensions.
>Ivan Kožarić, Vrijeme za novu državu! [Time for a New State!] , 2011.Print, portfolio of 9 prints, (x8) 37 x 50 cm .
>Ivan Kožarić, Zonder titel, 2011.Painting.
>Ivan Kožarić, I'm Feeling Like the Belly of a Lion That Has Eaten Too Much, 2011.Sculpture, metal, canvas, variable dimensions.
>Ivan Kožarić, Phallus, 2011.Object.
>Ivan Kožarić, Untitled.Sculpture.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Exhibition: EXTRA MUROS: Geel – Middle Gate II – The Story of Dymphna. 15 September 2018 - 04 November 2018.
> Exhibition: EXTRA MUROS: Visite Bornem – Gedeelde Ruimte. 03 May 2014 - 25 May 2014.
> Exhibition: Museum of Parallel Narratives — In the framework of L’Internationale. 14 May 2011 - 02 October 2011.
> Exhibition: The Collection. 28 April 2017 - 31 December 2021.
> Exhibition: The collection I – Fall 2002. 31 August 2002 - 10 November 2002.
> Exhibition: The Collection XXXIII – The Collection as a Character. 07 June 2013 - 22 September 2013.
> Exhibition: The Encyclopedic Palace. 01 June 2013 - 24 November 2013.
> Exhibition: Urgent Conversations: Antwerp – Athens, Part II: Interpersonal Space / Beyond Knowledge. 01 July 2017 - 03 September 2017.
> Exhibition: Urgent Conversations Athens - Antwerp. 31 October 2016 - 05 February 2017.
> Exhibition: Visite Roeselare – The Green Line. 05 May 2016 - 19 June 2016.
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> Ensemble: An Architecture for Art - Ivan Kozaric.
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> Ensemble: Beyond Knowledge.
> Ensemble: GEWELD | VIOLENCE.
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> Ensemble: I'm Feeling Like the Belly of a Lion that has Eaten Too Much.
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> Ensemble: M HKA_DEFAULT_WORKS.
> Ensemble: Middle Gate.
> Ensemble: NUCLEUS.