Zoran Mušič

Zoran Mušič
Zoran Mušič
	Zoran Mušič in the 1960s
Born	Anton Zoran; 12 February 1909; Bukovica, Austria-Hungary (now in Slovenia)
Died	25 May 2005 (aged 96); Venice, Italy
Education	Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb
Known for	Painting; drawing; printmaking;
Notable work	Konjički (Cavallini); Dalmatian; Sienese; Umbrian Istrian; Landscape; Nismo poslednji (we are not the last); Cathedrals; Portraits of Ida; Self-portraits;
Movement	Neodvisni; École de Paris;
Spouse	Ida Cadorin Barbarigo
Awards	Grand Prize Venice Biennale (1956); Prešeren Award (1991);

Zoran Mušič (12 February 1909 – 25 May 2005), baptised as Anton Zoran Musič, was a Slovene painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He was the only painter of Slovene descent who managed to establish himself in the elite cultural circles of Italy and France, particularly Paris in the second half of the 20th century, where he lived for most of his later life. He painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, as well as scenes of horror from the Dachau concentration camp and vedute of Venice.

Life

Zoran Mušič was born in a Slovene-speaking family in Bukovica, a small village in the Vipava Valley near Gorizia, in what was then the Austrian County of Gorizia and Gradisca (now in Slovenia). Mušič's father Anton was the headmaster of the local school, and his mother Marija (née Blažič) was a teacher there. Both parents were Slovenes from the Gorizia region: his father was from the village of Šmartno in the Gorizia Hills, and his mother was born in the hamlet of Kostanjevica in the village of Lig.^[4]

Mušič's father was mobilized and served on various battlefields during the First World War. In 1915, during the Battles of the Isonzo, the family (his mother with two children) was forced to flee to Arnače, a village near Velenje in the Duchy of Styria, where Zoran attended elementary school. In the spring of 1918, toward the end of World War I, the family moved back to Gorizia, but they were expelled again in late August 1919 by the Italian authorities, which had occupied the region. They moved to Griffen in Carinthia, but were expelled once again by the Austrian authorities after the Carinthian Plebiscite in late October 1920. They finally settled in Lower Styria, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.^[4]

Mušič attended two high schools in Maribor until September 1928. Afterward, he visited Vienna for a short time. Between 1930 and 1935, he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Mušič spoke Slovene, German, Croatian, Italian, French, and some Friulian.^[5]

After graduating in 1934, he travelled extensively around Europe. He spent three months (April to June 1935) in Spain, mainly Madrid. Later he served his obligatory army service in Bileća (November 1935 to July 1936) in Yugoslavia. Later he spent each summer in Dalmatia while being based in Maribor and the nearby village of Hoče. In 1940, he moved to Ljubljana permanently. During this period (1942), he painted in two churches in his native Gorizia region, together with his friend, the painter Avgust Černigoj (in Drežnica and Grahovo) and later one in the village of Gradno with another Slovenian painter, Lojze Spacal.^[4] In October 1943, he moved to Trieste and for some weeks for the first time to Venice. He had his first one-man show (outside Yugoslavia) in Trieste and several months later in Venice. In early October 1944, he was arrested by the Nazi German forces because he was in a group of Slovene anti-fascists. The group had hidden a transmitter and was connected with the British IS. His drawing and painting in Venice raised suspicions that he was a spy, and a month later he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where he made more than 180 sketches of life in the camp, some under extremely difficult circumstances. From the drawings, mainly created in May 1945, he managed to save around one hundred (some more with his friends). After liberation by the Americans on April 29, 1945, Mušič returned to his hometown of Ljubljana in early June. There, he was sent to the hospital in Golnik. A month later he was subjected to pressures by the newly established communist regime and moved to Gorizia at the end of July 1945. In the following months he travelled in the Trieste and Istria area, spending some time in Pinguente (Buzet). In October 1945, he settled in Venice with the help of the Cadorin family and returned to painting. In September 1949, he married the Venetian painter Ida Cadorin Barbarigo there.^[4] He also painted a room in Vila Dornacher near Zurich during the same period.

In 1950 he prepared huge tapestry: Marco Polo and his way to China for the passenger ship Augustus. At the same time he won the Gualino prize and in 1956 the Grand Prize for his printmaking at the Venice Biennale. In 1951 he was awarded the Prix de Paris, (jointly with Antonio Corpora) for his colorful paintings of Dalmatia. After 1952 he lived mainly in Paris, where the 'lyrical abstraction' of the French Informel determined the art world. He was a part of the third Ecole de Paris and exhibited at the Galerie de France. ^[4] this period he kept his studio in Venice and exhibited again at the Biennale in 1960, when he was awarded the UNESCO Prize. The much acclaimed series We Are Not the Last, in which the artist transformed the terror of his experiences in the concentration camp into documents of universal tragedy, was made in the 1970s.^[4] His last achievement were series of Selfportratis and Double portraits. He had problems with his eyesight in his old age. Partly blind, he signed his last drawings in 2000.

In 1981 Mušič was appointed Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in Paris. Mušič's work has been honoured in numerous international exhibitions, such as the large retrospective exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1995, opened by the French and Slovenian presidents François Mitterrand and Milan Kučan.^[4] At the same time Austrians promised him a permanent exhibition in Klagenfurt. It was never established. A huge part of his works was taken from his studio and never returned to the painter or his wife.

In 1991, a permanent collection of 134 graphic works donated by Zoran Mušič was opened at Dobrovo Castle in Brda. The first installation was curated by Nelida Silič Nemec, director of the Museum (Slovene: Goriški muzej) in Nova Gorica. A catalog was published with a list of all the donated works, an extensive biography with quotations from Zoran Mušič, and three introductory studies by N. S. Nemec (The Permanent Collection of Graphic Works by Zoran Mušič), Nace Šumi (Zoran Mušič in Slovenian Painting), and Zoran Kržišnik (The Graphic Creativity of Zoran Mušič). In 1991, Mušič received the Prešeren Award for lifetime achievement, the highest recognition in the arts in Slovenia.^[3] Some of Mušič's works have been featured at Piran Coastal Galleries.^[6] Gallery Zala from Ljubljana prepared seven exhibitions (four in Ljubljana, and one each in Belgrade, Vienna, and London). A large retrospective was presented at the Modern Gallery in Ljubljana in November 2009. The Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts published a volume written by 20 authors from Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Italy, and France (Vizije Zorana Mušiča) in November 2012. The only permanent exhibition of his various works (paintings, prints, and drawings) was held at the National Gallery in Ljubljana in 2016. Jean Clair, Vanda Mušičand GojkoZupan wrote a catalogue for the exhibition. A large temporary exhibition of selected works was prepared at Lugano's Collezione Braglia in October 2016. Another exhibition took place in Venice at the Fortuny Museum in spring 2018: A Tribute to Zoran Mušič, The Zurich Room. The Leopold Museum in Vienna opened a large retrospective exhibition in April 2018 with 167 selected works.

The first doctoral thesis related to Mušič was prepared by Aurora Fonda at the University of Padua: L'opera giovanile di Zoran Music, Padova, 2011, which dealt with the painter's early oeuvre, with a detailed inventory of his works. Mušič's painting and Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of painting were brought together in a PhD in 2016 by Dr Nelida Nemec. She juxtaposed philosophical views on painting and the perception of the philosopher with the artistic practice and views of the painter Mušič. From Merleau-Ponty's thesis that the painter and the philosopher share the same problem, the research mirrors the connection between Mušič's painting and the philosopher's conception of painting, and a new appreciation and broader vision and interpretation of their work. This was followed by a French, extensive and detailed doctorate by Etienne David. It deals with the key works of the Slovenian painter and compares his oeuvre with that of Jean Fautrier.

Mušič died in Venice in 2005 at the age of 96. He is buried in the local St. Michele cemetery.^[4]

Exhibitions (selection of personal presentations)

1942: Zoran Mušič. Galerija Obersnel, Ljubljana, (February)
1944: Zoran Music. 25 oeuvres exposées. Piccola Galleria, Venice (June 17 – July 8)
1960: Music. Peintures et gouaches. Galerie_de_France, Paris (February 26 – March 20)
1964: Music. Zeichnungen und Graphik. Kunstmuseum Basel (May 9 – June 14)
1967: Zoran Anton Music. Retrospektivna razstava. Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana (April 14 – May 7)
1978: Music, le temps d'une mémoire. Rétrospective: Toiles – Aquarelles – Gouaches – Dessins de 1951 à 1977. Galerie de France, Paris (April 4 – May 20)
1991: Collection of graphic works by Zoran. Gallery of Zoran Music. Dobrovo Castle. Slovenia.
1992–93: Music, Arbeiten auf Papier von 1945 bis 1992. Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna (November 25 – January 31)
1995: Zoran Music. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris (April 4 – July 3)
1995: Zoran Music. Nous ne sommes pas les derniers, Peintures, Dessins, Gravures. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, Caen (May 18 – August 16)
1995–96: Zoran Music: Die späten Jahre. Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich (November 24 – January 14)
1997: Zoran Music. Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt Main (April 24 – June 29)
1997: Zoran Music. MMG Gallery, Tokyo (August)
1998: Zoran Music: gli acquerelli veneziani 1947–1949. Museo Morandi – Instituzione Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna (January 22 – April 13)
2006: Music in Slovene private Collections (1935–1997). Galerija Zala, Ljubljana (November 24 – December 22)
2009: A Spanish vision, February. National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana (12. February – March)
2009: Zoran Mušič in private and public collections, November 2009 – February 2010. Modern Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana
2009: Zoran Mušič v slovenskih zasebnih zbirkah III. Galerija Zala, Ljubljana (February)
2016: Zoran Mušič, Permanent collection. National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana
2018: Omaggio a Zoran Music. La Stanza di Zurigo. Museo Fortuny, Venezia (Febbraio)
2018: Zoran Music. Poesie der Stille. Leopold Museum, Vienna (April 13 – August 6)
2019: Zoran Music. Gallery W&K – Wienerroihter & Kohlbacher, Vienna (May 22 – September 13)
2019: Music in Slovene private Collections VII. Galerija Zala, Ljubljana (June 6 – June 25)
2019: Zoran Mušič. Galerija in antikvitete Novak, Ljubljana (October 24 – November 9)
2020: Zoran Mušič. "The fascination of painting". Klagenfurt, (January 23 – March 1)
2020: Zoran Mušič.111 catalogues for the 111 Anniversary. National Gallery, Ljubljana. (February 11 – May 30)
2020: Zoran Mušič. "Drawings from Dachau," Modern Gallery, Ljubljana. (February 27 – July 1)
2022: Zoran Mušič. Il viaggio della vita, Galleria Comunale, Monfalcone. (8 Ottobre – 27 Novembre)

Museums and galleries

Austria

Albertina, Vienna
Essl Museum – Contemporary Art, Klosterneuburg/Vienna
StadtGalerie, Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt
Gallery Magnet, Völkermarkt/Carinthia

Chile

Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile

Croatia

Galerija Moderne umjetnosti, Zagreb
Muzej moderne i sodobne umjetnosti, Rijeka

France

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Musée National du Louvre, Paris, prints
Centre National Georges Pompidou, Paris, 10 drawings from Dachau
Musée Malraux, Le Havre
Musée de Valence, Valence
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon

Germany

Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
Museum Folkwang, Essen
Neue Pinakothek, München

Italy

Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna
Galleria internazionale d'Arte Moderna Ca' Pesaro, Venice
Museo Fortuny, Venice
Galleria Nazionale, Rome, tapestry
GaMeC galleria, Bergamo, painting
Musei Provinciali di Gorizia, Gorizia, paintings
Museo Morandi, Bologna
Musei Civici, Treviso
Museo Revoltella, Trieste, 24 drawings from Dachau
MAGI '900- Museum of Artistic and Historical Excellence, Pieve di Cento (BO)

Israel

Yad Vashem museum, Jerusalem

Netherlands

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Slovenia

Nova Gorica Regional Museum / Castle Kromberk, Zoran Mušič Gallery, Dobrovo, permanent exhibition: prints
Veno Pilon Gallery, Ajdovščina: drawings
City Museum of Ljubljana, Ljubljana
Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, drawings, prints, paintings
Museum of Contemporary History, Ljubljana, print
National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana, permanent exhibition: paintings, sketches, prints
Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor, paintings, prints
Museum of White Carniola (Bela krajina), Kambič Collection, Metlika, part of the permanent exhibition in the Kambič Gallery; paintings, prints, drawings
Carinthia Art History Gallery, Slovenj Gradec

Spain

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Collecio IVAM, Valencia

Sweden

Museum, Stockholm

Switzerland

Kunstmuseum, Basel
Fondazione Braglia, Lugano
Musée Jenisch, Vevey

United Kingdom

Estorick Collection, London
Tate Modern, London

United States

Art Institute of Chicago
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Cleveland Museum of Art
Dallas Museum of Art
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia

Vatican

Vatican Museums, Collection of Contemporary Art

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Estorick, Michael (28 June 2005). "Zoran Mušič". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 May 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
^ Clair, Jean. "Zoran Music". Grove Art Online. Tate.
^ ^a ^b "Prešernove nagrade" (PDF) (in Slovenian). Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. p. 13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-17. ZORAN MUŠIČ za življenjsko delo (slikar)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h G. Zupan, Biography, Videnja Zorana Mušiča, Ljubljana, 2012.
^ BBC Radio 4 – Great Lives, Series 36, Kulvinder Ghir on Zoran Mušič. Tuesday 21 April 2015, 16:30. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05r3w3s>.
^ Obalne galerije Piran – Arhivi – ZORAN MUŠIČ | 1909–2005 | Slike, gvaši, risbe

External links

A tribute to Zoran Music with photos and recent exhibitions
Zoran Mušič web page
Zoran Mušič biography on Widewalls
[1]
Great works: Self-Portrait 1990 (48x38 cms (sic)), Zoran Music – Michael Glover, The Independent
Venice Pays Homage to Zoran Music with Exhibition at Palazzo Franchetti – artdaily.org
A life of wandering – Andrew Lambirth, The Spectator, 29 July 2000
[2]

[in-ob-1] Estorick, Michael (28 June 2005). "Zoran Mušič". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 May 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2011.

[tate-bio-2] Clair, Jean. "Zoran Music". Grove Art Online. Tate.

[pa-3] "Prešernove nagrade" (PDF) (in Slovenian). Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. p. 13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-17. ZORAN MUŠIČ za življenjsko delo (slikar)

[G._Zupan,_Biography_2012-4] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h G. Zupan, Biography, Videnja Zorana Mušiča, Ljubljana, 2012.

[5] BBC Radio 4 – Great Lives, Series 36, Kulvinder Ghir on Zoran Mušič. Tuesday 21 April 2015, 16:30. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05r3w3s>.

[6] Obalne galerije Piran – Arhivi – ZORAN MUŠIČ | 1909–2005 | Slike, gvaši, risbe

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

Zoran Mušič

Contents

Life

Exhibitions (selection of personal presentations)

Museums and galleries

References

Further reading

External links

Zoran Mušič
Zoran Mušič in the 1960s
Born	Anton Zoran (1909-02-12)12 February 1909^[1] Bukovica, Austria-Hungary (now in Slovenia)
Died	25 May 2005(2005-05-25) (aged 96)^[1] Venice, Italy^[1]
Education	Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb
Known for	Painting drawing printmaking ^[2]
Notable work	Konjički (Cavallini) Dalmatian Sienese Umbrian Istrian Landscape Nismo poslednji (we are not the last) Cathedrals Portraits of Ida Self-portraits
Movement	Neodvisni École de Paris
Spouse	Ida Cadorin Barbarigo
Awards	Grand Prize Venice Biennale (1956) Prešeren Award (1991)^[3]