Antun Augustincic
Encyclopedia
Antun Augustinčić was a prominent Croatian
sculptor. Along with Ivan Meštrović
and Frano Kršinić
he is considered one of the three most important Croatian sculptors of the 20th century. His most notable sculptures include the Peace monument which stands in front of the United Nations building
in New York City
and the Miner statue in front of the International Labour Organization
headquarters in Geneva
.
in the Hrvatsko Zagorje
region in northern Croatia
, which was at the time part of Austria-Hungary
. In 1918 he enrolled at the Arts and Crafts College in Zagreb
, where he studied sculpting under professors Rudolf Valdec and Robert Frangeš. After the college became the Royal Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1922, he studied under the guidance of Ivan Meštrović until his graduation in 1924. He then received a scholarship from the French government and continued his studies at the École des Arts Décoratifs
and École des Beaux-Arts
in Paris
under the guidance of Jean Antoine Injalbert
.
In 1925 and 1926 Augustinčić held his first exhibitions in Paris, before returning to Zagreb and exhibiting in Zagreb in 1926 and then again in 1927 in Lwów and Zagreb. In 1929 he was one of the founding members of the Earth Group
(Croatian
: Grupa Zemlja) arts collective which brought together prominent left-oriented sculptors, painters and architects, such as Drago Ibler
, Krsto Hegedušić
, Ivan Tabaković
, Ivan Generalić
, and many others. Augustinčić took part in several exhibitions organised by the group between 1929 and 1933, when he left the group, two years before it was banned by the authorities in 1935.
for the monument in Niš
, after his design won the competition out of the 23 works submitted, with prominent Yugoslav sculptors Risto Stijović
and Sreten Stojanović
coming in second and third. From then on equestrian statues became one the hallmarks of his career, notable examples being the monument to Józef Piłsudski in Katowice
, Poland
(commissioned in the 1930s but placed in 1991) and his most notable work, the Peace monument, erected in front of the United Nations building in New York in 1954. In the late 1930s he also created a couple of monuments to King Alexander
in Sombor
and Skopje
(which were later destroyed in World War II
), as well as several sculptures of Croatian politician Stjepan Radić
. Other notable works from this period include a number of family tomb headstone
s at the Mirogoj Cemetery
in Zagreb, including Sorrow (1930), Moses (1932) and Icarus (1935).
In 1940 he became a corresponding member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts
(JAZU) and his works were featured in the 1940 documentary film Croatian Sculptors (German title
: Bilhauerkunst in Kroatien) filmed by Oktavijan Miletić
. During the war Augustinčić remained active and was commissioned to sculpt a bust of the Croatian Poglavnik Ante Pavelić
. In 1946 Augustinčić became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and after the war he was made a member of the People's Assembly
.
In 1949 he was made a full member of the Yugoslav Academy, and from the 1950s onwards he started making portrait
s, art nude
s and figurative sculptures
. In the years after the war he made a number of notable sculptures, such as the monuments to Josip Broz Tito
in Tito's birthplace of Kumrovec
(1948), politician Moša Pijade
(1953), violinist Zlatko Baloković
(1962), 16th century Croatian writer Marin Držić
(1963) and many others. His most important sculpture in this period is The Carrying of the Wounded (Croatian
: Nošenje ranjenika), which evolved from a sketch made in 1944 and which he used as a recurring motif in a number of monuments he created in the following three decades, one of which can be seen in front of the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb.
Augustinčić, together with the Serbian painter Đorđe Andrejević-Kun, also designed all of the Yugoslav orders and decorations, and he also created the coat of arms of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (with Vanja Radauš).
In 1970 Augustinčić donated his works to his native town of Klanjec, where a gallery exhibiting his works opened in 1976. His last great work was the memorial dedicated to the 1573 Peasants' Revolt and its leader Matija Gubec
, which was erected near Oršić Castle
in Gornja Stubica
in 1973. The monument is made of bronze and stone and features a relief
covering 180 square metres.
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
sculptor. Along with Ivan Meštrović
Ivan Meštrovic
Ivan Meštrović was a Croatian and Yugoslav sculptor and architect born in Vrpolje, Croatia...
and Frano Kršinić
Frano Kršinić
Frano Kršinić was a renowned Croatian sculptor. Along with Ivan Meštrović and Antun Augustinčić he is considered one of the three most important Croatian sculptors of the 20th century...
he is considered one of the three most important Croatian sculptors of the 20th century. His most notable sculptures include the Peace monument which stands in front of the United Nations building
United Nations headquarters
The headquarters of the United Nations is a complex in New York City. The complex has served as the official headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1952. It is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and the Miner statue in front of the International Labour Organization
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...
headquarters in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
.
Early life
Augustinčić was born in the small town of KlanjecKlanjec
Klanjec is a small town in northwestern Croatia, in the region of Hrvatsko Zagorje on the border with Slovenia. The population of Klanjec is 565, but there are 2,915 people in the municipality...
in the Hrvatsko Zagorje
Hrvatsko Zagorje
Hrvatsko Zagorje is a region north of Zagreb, Croatia. It comprises the whole area north of Medvednica mountain up to Slovenia in the north and west, and up to the regions of Međimurje and Podravina in the north and east...
region in northern Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, which was at the time part of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. In 1918 he enrolled at the Arts and Crafts College in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, where he studied sculpting under professors Rudolf Valdec and Robert Frangeš. After the college became the Royal Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1922, he studied under the guidance of Ivan Meštrović until his graduation in 1924. He then received a scholarship from the French government and continued his studies at the École des Arts Décoratifs
École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs
The École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs is a public university of art and design and is one of the most prestigious French grande école...
and École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
under the guidance of Jean Antoine Injalbert
Jean Antoine Injalbert
Jean Antoine Injalbert was a much-decorated French sculptor, born at Béziers.- Life :The son of a stonemason, Injalbert was a pupil of Augustin-Alexandre Dumont and won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1874. At the Exposition Universelle of 1889 he won the Grand Prix, and in 1900 was a member of...
.
In 1925 and 1926 Augustinčić held his first exhibitions in Paris, before returning to Zagreb and exhibiting in Zagreb in 1926 and then again in 1927 in Lwów and Zagreb. In 1929 he was one of the founding members of the Earth Group
Earth Group
The Earth Group was a Croatian arts collective and which brought together artists, architects and intellectuals and which was active in Zagreb from 1929 to 1935. The group aimed to defend their artistic independence against foreign influences such as Impressionism or Neoclassicism and Art for...
(Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
: Grupa Zemlja) arts collective which brought together prominent left-oriented sculptors, painters and architects, such as Drago Ibler
Drago Ibler
Drago Ibler was a Croatian architect and pedagogue.His style can be described as pure simplicity and functional architecture....
, Krsto Hegedušić
Krsto Hegedušic
Krsto Hegedušić was a Croatian painter, illustrator and theater designer. His most famous paintings depict the harsh life of the Croatian peasantry in the manner of naive art...
, Ivan Tabaković
Ivan Tabakovic
Ivan Tabaković was an Austro-Hungarian-born Serbian painter.Born in Arad, Hungary , he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, and afterwards, at the Royal Academy of Applied Arts in Zagreb. In the autumn of 1922, he left for Munich, only temporarily interrupting his studies in Zagreb...
, Ivan Generalić
Ivan Generalic
Ivan Generalić was a Croatian naïve art painter.Generalić was born in Hlebine near Koprivnica. In elementary school, painting lessons were his greatest joy and as a child he used to earn money...
, and many others. Augustinčić took part in several exhibitions organised by the group between 1929 and 1933, when he left the group, two years before it was banned by the authorities in 1935.
Rise to prominence
In 1930 Augustinčić created his first equestrian sculptureEquestrian sculpture
An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin "eques", meaning "knight", deriving from "equus", meaning "horse". A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an "equine statue"...
for the monument in Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
, after his design won the competition out of the 23 works submitted, with prominent Yugoslav sculptors Risto Stijović
Risto Stijovic
Risto Stijović was an internationally renowned Serbian sculptor, considered to be one of the most original artists of his time. He was born in centre of Podgorica, in old Podgorica's family. He lived for years in Paris, where he met his wife, Jeanette. They moved to Belgrade where he died in 1974...
and Sreten Stojanović
Sreten Stojanovic
Sreten Stojanović was one of the most prominent Bosnian and Serbian sculptors of the 20th century.He was born in 1898 in Prijedor in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the house of Orthodox priests who "preached the faith for strength of people and who imagined Russia to be something that is ours or more...
coming in second and third. From then on equestrian statues became one the hallmarks of his career, notable examples being the monument to Józef Piłsudski in Katowice
Katowice
Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about north of the Silesian Beskids and about southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(commissioned in the 1930s but placed in 1991) and his most notable work, the Peace monument, erected in front of the United Nations building in New York in 1954. In the late 1930s he also created a couple of monuments to King Alexander
Alexander I of Yugoslavia
Alexander I , also known as Alexander the Unifier was the first king of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as well as the last king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes .-Childhood:...
in Sombor
Sombor
Sombor is a city and municipality located in northwest part of Serbian autonomous province of Vojvodina. The city has a total population of 48,749 , while the Sombor municipality has 87,815 inhabitants...
and Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...
(which were later destroyed in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
), as well as several sculptures of Croatian politician Stjepan Radić
Stjepan Radic
Stjepan Radić was a Croatian politician and the founder of the Croatian Peasant Party in 1905. Radić is credited with galvanizing the peasantry of Croatia into a viable political force...
. Other notable works from this period include a number of family tomb headstone
Headstone
A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. In most cases they have the deceased's name, date of birth, and date of death inscribed on them, along with a personal message, or prayer.- Use :...
s at the Mirogoj Cemetery
Mirogoj Cemetery
The Mirogoj Cemetery is considered to be one of the most beautiful cemetery parks in Europe and, because of its design, numbers among the more noteworthy landmarks in the City of Zagreb....
in Zagreb, including Sorrow (1930), Moses (1932) and Icarus (1935).
In 1940 he became a corresponding member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the national academy of Croatia. It was founded in 1866 as the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts , and was known by that name for most of its existence.- History :...
(JAZU) and his works were featured in the 1940 documentary film Croatian Sculptors (German title
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Bilhauerkunst in Kroatien) filmed by Oktavijan Miletić
Oktavijan Miletic
Oktavijan Miletić was a Croatian cinematographer and director. His avant-garde work in the period from 1928 to 1945 remains as one of the foundations of Croatian film....
. During the war Augustinčić remained active and was commissioned to sculpt a bust of the Croatian Poglavnik Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelic
Ante Pavelić was a Croatian fascist leader, revolutionary, and politician. He ruled as Poglavnik or head, of the Independent State of Croatia , a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia...
. In 1946 Augustinčić became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and after the war he was made a member of the People's Assembly
Parliament of Croatia
The Parliament of Croatia or the Sabor is the unicameral representative body of the citizens of the Republic of Croatia and legislature of the country. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, represents the people and is vested with the legislative power...
.
In 1949 he was made a full member of the Yugoslav Academy, and from the 1950s onwards he started making portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
s, art nude
Art nude
An art nude is a work of art that takes the naked human form as its dominant subject. The term is used for painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media.-Western tradition:...
s and figurative sculptures
Figurative art
Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational.-Definition:...
. In the years after the war he made a number of notable sculptures, such as the monuments to Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
in Tito's birthplace of Kumrovec
Kumrovec
Kumrovec is a village in the northern part Croatia, part of Krapina-Zagorje County. It sits on the Sutla River, along the Croatian-Slovenian border. The Kumrovec municipality has 1,593 residents , but the village itself has only 269 people...
(1948), politician Moša Pijade
Moša Pijade
Moša Pijade , nicknamed Čiča Janko was a prominent Yugoslavian/Serbian Communist of Sephardic Jewish origin, a close collaborator of Josip Broz Tito, former President of Yugoslavia, and full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.In his youth, Pijade was a...
(1953), violinist Zlatko Baloković
Zlatko Balokovic
Zlatko Baloković was a Croatian violinist.-Early years:He was born in Zagreb, Croatia , and began violin lessons at age ten. He made such progress that, after three years, he was sent to Prague to continue his studies at the "Meisterschule" under the guidance of Otakar Ševčík...
(1962), 16th century Croatian writer Marin Držić
Marin Držic
Marin Držić is considered the finest Croatian Renaissance playwright and prose writer.- Life :Born into a large and well to do family in Dubrovnik, Držić was trained and ordained as a priest — a calling very unsuitable for his rebel temperament...
(1963) and many others. His most important sculpture in this period is The Carrying of the Wounded (Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
: Nošenje ranjenika), which evolved from a sketch made in 1944 and which he used as a recurring motif in a number of monuments he created in the following three decades, one of which can be seen in front of the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb.
Augustinčić, together with the Serbian painter Đorđe Andrejević-Kun, also designed all of the Yugoslav orders and decorations, and he also created the coat of arms of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (with Vanja Radauš).
In 1970 Augustinčić donated his works to his native town of Klanjec, where a gallery exhibiting his works opened in 1976. His last great work was the memorial dedicated to the 1573 Peasants' Revolt and its leader Matija Gubec
Matija Gubec
Ambroz "Matija" Gubec was a Croatian peasant and a revolutionary, best known as the leader of the Croatian-Slovenian peasant revolt...
, which was erected near Oršić Castle
Oršić Castle in Gornja Stubica
Oršić Castle is a baroque castle in the Gornja Stubica municipality, Krapina-Zagorje County, northwestern Croatia.-History:It was built in 1756 by Croatian count Krsto Oršić // on the site of a previous fortress from the Middle Ages and designed in L-shaped ground plan...
in Gornja Stubica
Gornja Stubica
Gornja Stubica is in the Krapina-Zagorje county in Croatia. According to the 2001 census, there are 5,726 inhabitants in the area. An absolute majority of them which are Croats....
in 1973. The monument is made of bronze and stone and features a relief
Relief
Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
covering 180 square metres.
External links
- The Antun Augustinčić Gallery official website