Ivan Mestrovic (Croatian 1883-1962)3

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/sandamichaela-2630358-ivan-mestrovic3/

The famed sculptor was born in 1883 and died in 1962. The Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic was one of the most important sculptors of his generation. He was the first living artist to have a one-man show at both the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1915 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 1948. Mestrovic was born in the small town of Otavice, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a stone mason and the young Ivan began an apprenticeship in a Split masonry workshop before leaving for Vienna and its Academy of Fine Arts in 1901. There Mestrovic took part in the exhibitions of the Vienna Seccession where his talents were first recognised.Mestrovic's dream of a Yugoslavia united and strengthened against outside forces, was shattered in 1941 when Germany invaded. In the following years the artist resisted both Fascism and Communism and is remembered as a hero of Croatian nationalism. He was imprisoned in Croatia from 1941-43 after refusing the post of Chancellor at his old school - the Academy of Fine Arts in Nazi-occupied Vienna. He left Croatia in 1943 and lived briefly in Switzerland before emigrating to New York State to take up the chair of sculpture created for him at Syracuse University. He never again lived in Croatia as he refused to live under Communism. However, in accordance with his wishes, he was buried in the The Most Holy Redeemer church he had built in Otavice. Moreover, he bequeathed his homes and studios in Zagreb and Split as well the chapel in Otavice to the Croatian people, together with the majority of his sculpture. The bequest now forms the Ivan Mestrovic Museums in Croatia

Miguel Sopó (1918-2014) Bust of sculptor Ivan Mestrovic (clay) 1949

There are two Mestrovic museums in the USA, at Notre Dame, Indiana and in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (LASM).There is a large collection of his art at Syracuse University as well as monuments in Chicago, Washington DC, New York, The Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, St. Augustine and Miami, Florida, Buffalo, Hawaii etc.

Notre Dame Last self-portrait 1961

Notre Dame Christ and the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well, 1957

At the grand Notre Dame Seminary on Carrolton Ave. in New Orleans

Christ and the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well by Ivan Mestrovic, 1957 - University of Notre Dame USA

Christ and the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well by Ivan Mestrovic, 1957

Notre Dame Basilica of the Sacred Heart Pieta 1942-46

Mestrovic had begun the work in 1941 when imprisoned in Zagreb, Croatia, for refusing to cooperate with the fascist Croats, Italians and Germans who had taken control of his country. Five months later the Vatican negotiated his release and provided sanctuary for him and his family in Rome, where he completed two versions of the Pieta - this one in marble, the other in bronze (Vatican Museums) taking inspiration from Michelangelo’s Pieta, 1545 (Cathedral, Florence) In 1955 it was brought to South Bend from New York City, having been on exhibit since 1947 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first one-man exhibition ever given to a living artist

Notre Dame Basilica of the Sacred Heart Pieta 1942-46

Notre Dame Saint John the

Evangelist, 1950

sculpture in front of

O'Shaughnessy Hall

Notre Dame St.Luke

1950

St.Luke 1950

Notre Dame Moses 1950

Notre Dame Madonna and

Child 1948-49

Notre Dame Return of the prodigal son

1954

Notre Dame Madonna 1917

Notre Dame Young Christ

teaching in the temple

1950s

Notre Dame Ashbaugh Madonna

1917

Notre Dame Christ on the

Cross1948-49

Notre Dame Meditation

1947-50

Notre Dame Young Christ

teaching in the temple

1950s

Notre Dame - Wood carvings of life & death of JesusThe last supper 1957

Notre Dame Portrait of

Basil A. Moreau1950

Notre Dame Mother 1926

The hands of the mother (Marta Mestrovic)1908

Notre Dame self-portrait

plaster 1924

Notre Dame Self-portrait 1911

Notre Dame Persephone

and Dionysius 1945-46

Syracuse University Art

collection Tired Bard

Socrate Jennmaur Gallery USAProvenance: The Estate of the writer Clement Stone Oaks Manor, Lake forest Chicago, gift from Ivan Mestrovic while he was teaching at Notre Dame University

Socrate

Syracuse University Art Collection

Portrait of a Lady

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Head of Moses Temple-Tifereth Israel

Beachwood, Ohio

Head of Moses Temple-Tifereth Israel

Beachwood, Ohio

Supplicant Persephone, 1945

Syracuse University Art Collection

Supplicant Persephone,

1945

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1945

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Under the cross 1941Syracuse University Art Collection

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JobSyracuse

University Art Collection

‘Job’ tells the story of a man tested by God. Stripped of his

house, land and family by God, Job maintained

his faith.

Syracuse, NY. Job by Ivan Mestrovic (1945) in the Shaffer Sculpture Court outside of Bowne Hall. 

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Madonna and Child 1928 Syracuse University Art Collection

An inscription at Job’s feet reads ‘Have pity on me, o ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me.’

Syracuse University Art

Collection

In 2012 as part of the festival «Croatie, la voici», the Musée Rodin presented a group of works by Ivan Meštrović (1883-1962), one of the most important 20th-century Croatian sculptors, and a great admirer of Auguste Rodin Supplicant Persephone, 1945 Job, 1945

Job, 1945

Galerija Meštrović (Split)

Musée Rodin

Supplicant Persephone,

1945

Isis and Horus 1947 Syracuse University Art Collection

Mary Magdalene under the Cross

1941Self-portrait, 1947Syracuse University Art Collection

Magdalene under the

Cross 1926

Syracuse University Art

Collection

 Magdalene Under the

Cross, 1918, plaster

Gliptoteka Zagreb

Moses 1952Syracuse University Art CollectionMoses (cast 1990)

Moses (1952; cast 1990)Syracuse University Art Collection

Ivan Mestrovic was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Gold Medal for sculpture in 1953

Růžena Zátková (Czech artist)

Praga

National Gallery of

Modern Art Rome

Old woman Atelier

Mestrovic Zagreb

Monument to Grgur Ninski

(Gregory from Nin) by Ivan

Mestrovic, Varazdin

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Annunciation 1927Split

Montenegro, Cetinje museum, a male Portrait

Montenegro, Cetinje museum, a Secession Portrait of a Girl

Remembering 1929 Gliptoteka ZagrebRemembrance 1908

Contemplation 1924, ZagrebThe Meštrović Gallery in Split 

ContemplationThe Meštrović Gallery in Split 

Contemplation, 1924, Zagreb, Marble from Carrara Mestrovic Palace in Split, Croatia

Text and pictures: Internet Copyright: All the images belong to their authors.

Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanuwww.slideshare.net/michaelasandahttp://www.authorstream.com/sandamichaela/

Sound: Klapa Sinj - Mirno spavaj ružo moja

Ivan Mestrovic was born in Vrpolje in Slavonia, August 15, 1883. After apprenticeship in the stonemason’s workshop of Harold Bilinic in Split, in 1901 he entered the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts where he stayed until 1906. Exhibiting with the artists from the Viennese Secession group he acquired affirmation already during his studies. Since 1908 he worked in Paris in his studio, where he produced a considerable part of the grandly conceived architectural and sculptural piece, Vidovdan Temple. These works were repeatedly exhibited and got the highest award at the World Exhibition in Rome in 1911, where they won the first prize for sculpture. Ivan Mestrovic stayed for four years in Rome studying sculpture of antiquity. He was totally infatuated with Michelangelo, whom he considered the greatest sculptor of all time. During World War I he exhibited in England in 1915, at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

After the war, he came to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, where he became a professor and later director of the Cultural Institute in Zagreb. At that time, Ivan Mestrovic had very close contacts with the Yugoslav Royal Court and personally with HM King Alexander I. During the period from 1932 to 1934, by order of the first man of the state, solely for the Royal Compound space, Ivan Mestrovic did a series of works aiming at the promotion of the state idea of integral Yugoslavism. The King’s effort to create a virtual Yugoslav tradition, mirrors in Ivan Mestrovic’s visualization of joint mythology, the origin and history of the Yugoslav nation.

After the Second World War, Ivan Mestrovic left for the United States. Since 1946 he worked as a professor at Syracuse University and later became a professor at the University of Notre Dame. He died in South Bend, Indiana, in 1962.

From 1915-16 Mestrovic was in London working closely with the Yugoslav Committee. Ruza joined him from Paris and their time in London was perhaps the most contented and successful of their married years. Mestrovic had his prestigious show at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where he exhibited a hundred sculptures and used his artistic celebrity to raise the profile of the Yugoslav cause. It was during this year that Mestrovic modelled the portrait of his wife. The angular composition and bold modelling convey all the strength and steadfastness which Mestrovic admired in the woman who had shared his early years of hardship and fostered his success. Ruza, seeing the portrait, identified herself with Bizet's Carmen, ready to make any sacrifice for her lover.

Mestrovic's dream of a Yugoslavia united and strengthened against outside forces, was shattered in 1941 when Germany invaded. In the following years the artist resisted both Fascism and Communism and is remembered as a hero of Croatian nationalism. He was imprisoned in Croatia from 1941-43 after refusing the post of Chancellor at his old school - the Academy of Fine Arts in Nazi-occupied Vienna. He left Croatia in 1943 and lived briefly in Switzerland before emigrating to New York State to take up the chair of sculpture created for him at Syracuse University. He never again lived in Croatia as he refused to live under Communism. However, in accordance with his wishes, he was buried in the The Most Holy Redeemer church he had built in Otavice. Moreover, he bequeathed his homes and studios in Zagreb and Split as well the chapel in Otavice to the Croatian people, together with the majority of his sculpture. The bequest now forms the Ivan Mestrovic Museums in Croatia.

Both the preliminary designs for Job and Persephone express Mestrovic's personal anguish as a prisoner in 1941, when he expected death at the hand of Italian Fascists.  His political stances from the First Wold War period (in defiance of both Austria and Italy) and his refusal in the mid-1930s to accept a Nazi invitation to exhibit his work in Berlin, which Hitler himself would open, made him a persona non grata in occupied Yugoslavia.  Subsequently, these works as executed in bronze have been accepted as larger expressions of pain, remorse and despair in the wake of all the destitution in Europe brought about in World War II.   Mestrovic's first wife Ruza was Jewish and she died in Zagreb in 1942 and at least 30 members of her extended family also died in the Holocaust. But Mestrovic knew many people - Jews and Christians - in artistic, political and others circles who suffered and died in the war.

For more about the artist

www.flickr.com/photos/93051314@N00/sets/72157594148443846/

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