Kožarić Ivan – Fisherman

About the author:

He was born in 1921 in Petrinja. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1949, becoming one of the key figures of Croatian contemporary art. In 1961, he was a co-founder of the revolutionary informal group Gorgona, which significantly influenced the development of conceptual art in the region. As a regular member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, his contribution to art received the highest institutional recognitions.

During his rich career, he realized numerous monuments and sculptures in public spaces as well as urban interventions throughout Croatia. He was awarded many honors, including the prestigious Vladimir Nazor Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1997. He held his first solo exhibition in 1955 at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, together with colleagues Stančić, Vaništa, Ivančić, Michiello, and Kožarić.

His international reputation was confirmed by participation in the Venice Biennale in 1976 and the São Paulo Biennale in 1979. In 1994, he represented contemporary Croatian sculpture as its central figure in Duisburg. Since 1953, his works have regularly appeared in group exhibitions worldwide and are included in numerous museum and private collections, as well as anthologies of European and global contemporary sculpture.

As critic Ivica Župan emphasized in the 2001 exhibition catalog: “He did not limit himself to one or several themes to elaborate throughout his career, but considers the entire observable and spiritual world… Today he arranges his sculptures, paintings, drawings, and graphics into complex installations and objects that send messages full of commentary on reality, within which we find a multitude of messages of universal human significance.”

Ivan Kožarić, whose artistic practice spans almost the entire second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, still lives and creates in Zagreb, leaving an indelible mark on Croatian and world contemporary art. His work represents a unique synthesis of visual power and intellectual depth, continuously questioning the boundaries of artistic expression.