Zlatko Bourek
The Military Diary / 1956
The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts – the Department of Prints and Drawings
2 October – 30 October 2012

Zlatko Bourek embodies the homo universalis of today. He is sculptor, painter, illustrator, theatrical stage designer and director, prominent member of the Zagreb School of Animation, and also rewarded drawer and printmaker.

The Military Diary / 1956 is a complementary exhibition and an hommage to Bourek's art on paper. In a ternate concept art works that prevail were created in secrecy during the military service in 1956 in Ajdovščina. The carnal enjoyments of the army period are supplemented by drawings of later dates (1981 and 1991/92). While the art works created in 1981 broadened the subject of carnal enjoyment to surrealist gastronomic experiences and feasts with hints of local customs and grotesque humour, the drawings made during the 1991/92 were incited by the events of the War of Independence, which evoked the artist's recollection of the persecution of the Jewish people during the World War Two. Finally, three animated films of Zlatko Bourek: The Captain Arbanas Marko (1967), The Cat (1971) and Dinner (1978) are represented in the exhibition.

Zlatko Bourek's drawings are personal and immanent interpretations of memory, tradition and religion grounded on Slavonian optimism and tradition, and on Jewish sense of humour. True to himself and his own playful and sincere style flavoured with a little badness, Zlatko Bourek is at the peak of Croatian and international art scene.