Gorgona Group

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Gorgona Group was a Croatian avant-garde artist group made up of artists and art historians. Members were Mangelos , Miljenko Horvat, Marijan Jevšovar , Julije Knifer , Ivan Kožarić , Matko Meštrović, Radoslav Putar, Đuro Seder and Josip Vaništa. Several informal members and friends were also involved in the group's activities. They acted based on the Anti-Art of 1959 and 1966 in Zagreb . They did not base their activities on a manifesto or a theory, rather they acted out of the idea of ​​a spiritual kinship that cannot be manifested by an aesthetic ideal or stylistic norms. Each of the artists enjoyed creative autonomy , the group represented a space of intellectual and spiritual freedom.

description

The activities of the Gorgona Group can be divided into three areas: exhibitions in Studio G (1961 to 1963, Schira Salon in Zagreb, Croatia), the publication of the anti-magazine by Gorgona (1961–1966, each issue was an independent work of art that emphasizing the work of an artist), and developing conceptual works, projects and various forms of artistic communication. The group is named after a poem by the member Mangelos .

The Gorgona magazine later became the "anti-magazine" because it differed from conventional publications of literary or artistic content. The first publication comes from Josip Vaništa, who says about the creation:

“In the winter of 1960, while passing by a second-hand store in Vlaška Street right across from the Studio movie theater, I spotted an unknown object in the shop window: a vertical plank connecting four horizontal planks. It was a spatial structure without purpose being offered for sale. Perpendicular winter lighting fell on the display, and the object cast a shadow on the light background wall. I stood fascinated, probably because of the closeness between the scene before me and the still-life from the '50s in which I had divided interior from exterior by placing a vertical line in the middle. I asked my friend Pavel Cazjek for a favor, and the next morning we photographed this shop window. I decided to repeat the photo nine times. I made a model, had it printed, and the first issue of Gorgona appeared during Easter week of 1961 (as did issue 2, a meander by Julije Knifer). This was the beginning of Gorgona. . . The first two issues seemed to link the group more closely together. Ideas were born but few of them were materialized, realized. The environment was in consternation, but sympathetic individuals began to emerge within the country and abroad .. "

- Josip Vaništa

The first exhibition and public thematization of the Gorgona Group took place in 1977 in the Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb. Here, for the first time, there was also an insight into the way the group worked, ranging from meetings, discussions, joint walks in the forest, exchanging letters, thoughts or surveys and homework within the group. The work of the Gorgona Group is represented in numerous institutes in Croatia, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb , the Filip Trade Collection and the Sudac Collection . Several years after the Gorgona Group ceased its activities, some of its members founded the Group of Six Artists .

Web links

Solo exhibitions (selection)

  • 1977: "Gorgona", Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; Municipal Museum, Mönchengladbach; Gallery KUC, Belgrade
  • 1981: Biennial of São Paulo
  • 1986: Gallery KUC, Belgrade
  • 1989: "Gorgona", FRAC Bourgogne, Art Plus University, Dijon
  • 1993: "The Horse who Sings - Radical Art from Croatia", Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
  • 1997: "Gorgona, Gorgonesco, Gorgonico", Biennial of Venice

Participation in group exhibitions (selection)

  • 2005: Collective Creativity , Kunsthalle Friedericianum, Kassel, DE
  • 2010: The Promises of the Past , Center Pompidou, Paris, FR
  • 2015: Transmissions: Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America, 1960 - 1980 , MoMA, New York, US

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/ScenesFromZagreb/
  2. ↑ http://post.at.moma.org/content_items/176-gorgona-group-now-and-then
  3. ↑ http://tranzit.org/exhibitionarchive/tag/gorgona-group/
  4. ↑ Collective Creativity. Retrieved June 15, 2016 .
  5. ^ Transmissions: Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America, 1960–1980. Accessed June 15, 2016 .