The sculptor and architect Ivan Meštrović (1883-1962) was one of the most important 20th-century Croatian artists. The son of Dalmatian peasants, educated in Vienna, enthusiast of Auguste Rodin’s works, a member of the Secession Group in Vienna. Meštrović exhibited his works at the most important artistic centres in Europe and America. His sculptures intertwined antique and Byzantine heritage with Modernism, and Slavic and Balkan themes with Mediterranean culture. His works have been interpreted as a metaphor for the sense of loss experienced by Croatians, for centuries stranded at a crossroads of Christianity and Islam, Russian Orthodox faith and Catholicism, and peasant and elite cultures. Meštrović was also engaged in the political and social spheres. Even though he was a proud Croatian patriot, before the Second World War he also supported the global concept of a multinational Yugoslavian state. However, after communist authorities seized power of Yugoslavia, he emigrated to the US in protest against Tito’s totalitarian regime.
Works by Meštrović are scattered all over his native Dalmatia and throughout former Yugoslavia, and in many other places around the globe. He created sculptural and architectural compositions iconic in Croatian culture, such as the statue of Grgur Ninski in Split, the Račić Family mausoleum in Cavtat and the History of Croatians sculpture in Zagreb. The exhibition Adriatic Epopee. Ivan Meštrović at the International Cultural Centre, prepared jointly by Muzeji Ivana Meštrovića: Galerija Meštrović in Split and Atelijer Meštrović in Zagreb, is the first presentation of the artist’s works in Poland. (Dorota Dziunikowska, “Karnet” monthly)
