Rijeka City Museum, guest appearance in Zagreb City Museum
Exhibition concept: Jelena Dunato
Poster design: Vesna Rožman
Sea, stone, city is an exhibition of landscapes of Rijeka and the Primorje region from the collection of the City Museum of Rijeka. It consists of nearly fifty paintings dating from the mid-19th century to the 2nd half of the 20th century. The authors are mainly local painters, such as Romolo Venucci, Carlo Ostrogovich, Mila Kumbatović, Mate Solis and Antun Žunić. Besides them, there are painters who are only partially connected with the Primorje region, such as Hans Printz and Jean d'Alheim, and there are a few who are renown internationally, such as Lea von Littrow. This exhibition was already hosted at the National Museum of Montenegro and the Centre of Modern Art of Montenegro (2011) and the Museum of Vojvodina in Novi Sad (2012). After the Zagreb City Museum, it will be presented in Rijeka in May 2014.
The City Museum of Rijeka is a new museum, it was established nineteen years ago, and its art collection cannot compete with the institutions that have decades of collecting behind them. That does not mean, however, that we have nothing to offer to the public, especially the public that meets this region and its history for the first time. By collecting methodically, and with some luck, we have managed to form an art collection which can present us in a creditable and visually attractive way.
As the title tells us, this exhibition is divided into three parts. This should not be taken too strictly – it is clear that, in this part of the world, there are no clear borders between the sea, stone and the city – they are all intertwined. However, it might be easier and visually clearer for the viewer if some kind of division, be it completely fictive, exists.
So the part about the sea features marines, ships and – to add some people to the landscape – two sailors and one unusual pair of nude bathers who remind us that the sea does not necessarily mean work and hardship, but also pleasure and fun.
Giovanni Butcovich, Portrait of a boy in marine uniform, John Janko Leard, Portrait of an Austro-Hungarian sailor,
1920, oil on canvas, MGR-12940 1915, oil on canvas, MGR-D-273
Carlo Ostrogovich, Ship launching, 1925-1928, oil on Carlo Ostrogovich, Mother, 1925-1935, oil on canvas,
canvas, MGR-D-741 MGR-D-740
The part on stone features townscapes of little Primorje towns and villages, dry stone walls and olive groves, where the ancient stones peacefully sunbathe at the top of the hills.
Vladimir Potočnjak, No title, mid 20th century, oil on plywood, MGR-D-789
Mila Kumbatović, Houses of Jurandvor, 1957, oil on canvas, MGR-D-790
Hans Printz, A romantic villa near Rijeka, 1900, oil on canvas, MGR-12929
Miomir Milošević, The harbour, 1995, mixed technique, MGR-D-191
The city part is bitter-sweet: the glorious industrial past of Rijeka is over and the city's development slowed down in the last years of the 20th century, losing its former splendour. The art survived, and so will the city, presented here not only with images of its harbour and industry, but also images of its old centre and its inhabitants. Its past has been recorded, its future still needs to be determined, lived, painted and exhibited.
Jelena Dunato
Pictures from the exhibition
photo Miljenko Gregl, ZCM
