5th Croatian Drawings Triennial
Author: MSc Slavica Marković

Organisation: the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Email: trijenalecrteza5@hazu.hr

Continuing the tradition of the presentation and promotion of artworks by Croatian artists, and with the aim to affirm the drawings as an independent art discipline and encourage creativity in this medium, the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts organizes the 5th Croatian Drawings Triennial. With this exhibition, we also mark half a centaury anniversary of the launch of the Zagreb Exhibition of Yugoslav Drawings, which has – since 1968 – been the central drawing manifestation in the region.

During 25 years of organizing biennial exhibitions, and since 1996 triennials, we have critically shown a wide span of the notion and possibilities of drawings; the selected works prove that almost no limits exist between drawings and paintings, space drawings and sculpture, light drawings and installations, computer drawings and machine-made drawings and prints, drawings and many variations of device art. All of these have been presented and commented in texts, public appearances in television and radio stations; the most successful artistic creations have been rewarded. Unfortunately, while questioning the limits of the media, we have almost lost sight of the core – the original drawing as a self-sufficient artwork created by hand, within a private communication, in the spiritual sphere of the artist’s being; drawing made as a primordial artistic expression, a fruit of the dialogue between mind and hand.

The author has conceived the 5th Croatian Triennial of Drawings as a confrontation of anthological drawings by Miroslav Kraljević from the holdings of the Department of Prints and Drawings with contemporary intimate small-format drawings by seven selected contemporary artists of different generations, ranging from Biserka Baretić and Zlatko Keser to Mirjana Vodopija, Davor Vrankić, Tomislav Buntak, Ines Matijević-Cakić and Iva Ćurić.

The Selection Committee will single out other participants of the Triennial among authors who applied to the open tender according to the criterion of excellence and in accordance with the directions of the Regulations.

The exhibition of the 5th Croatian Drawings Triennial will take place at the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Strossmayer Square 12; Room 10 of the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Nikola Šubić Zrinski Square 11; and the Library of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Strossmayer Square 14.

The exhibitions will be opened 29 May – 15 July 2018.