ZADAR – “MAN OF GLASS”-an overview of artists and exhibitions of contemporary art glass
May 11. 2018.
On May 5, 2018, at the Museum of antique glass in Zadar on the occasion of the 9th anniversary of the Museum opening and marking of the MAS day an exhibition of “MAN OF GLASS” / was opened – an overview of artists and exhibitions of contemporary art of glass.
Since its inception, the Antique Glass Museum in Zadar promotes the art of contemporary glass with a clear vision that Zadar becomes an important place in the promotion of glass as an art media, giving the artists the opportunity to perform at numerous exhibitions and workshops. In this way, in these 9 years of work, we met our glass people, dear artists, friends, of the Museum and Glass, who shared their artistic vision in shaping the glass with the public in our Museum. In these fruitful 9 years of work, 36 exhibitions of contemporary glass were presented to the public by 22 artists at 28 solo exhibitions and a multitude of artists at 8 group exhibitions. Some artists created multiple exhibitions in this period, showing different cycles of their work. Two exhibitions of pupils of the School of applied art and design of Zadar and one of the students of the Academy of fine arts University of Zagreb were also included in the group exhibitions held in the Museum. It is important to point out that the works for these exhibits were partly made in the Museum glass workshop in Zadar and are a nice example of MAS’s work on educating young people in artistic glass processing and setting up good foundations for the affirmation of glass as an important art media. The museum workshop also served to numerous artists to hold a series of art workshops, along with their exhibitions, demonstrations and thematic lectures at the Museum of antique glass in Zadar.
Over the years, this beautiful collaboration with artists from Croatia, but also from abroad, has been further refined with another Museum important aspect. However, our People of Glass have recognized the importance of promoting glass as an art media, so spontaneous in the Museum of antique glass in Zadar the Study Collection of contemporary glass were formed, which counts over 100 artworks. With almost every new exhibition, this fund is growing and makes an important view on the Croatian glasswork of the modern age. As this collection rapidly expanded the expected frames, the need for its constant exposure is also pointed out, so that Zadar could get more value on the glass chart not only Croatia, but Europe and the world.
For the purpose of illustrating the art symbiosis of glass and the Museum of Antique Glass in Zadar, the numbers are good, only for this example, 80 students and about fifty students who exhibited at three collective exhibitions, then we list 35 Nordic and 28 Italian artists with two major international exhibitions at MAS, we add 27 artists who presented themselves with their glass works, we summarize all the artists who exhibited at least one work, and we would come up to an impressive figure of 90 artists in 9 years of MAS work, which is the real number of Man of glass in our museum!
The exhibition itself covers the works of 26 artists who exhibited at MAS on this period at individual and group exhibitions. There are altogether 66 art works, of which 56 are part of the contemporary glass collection of the Museum of antique glass in Zadar, and 10 are borrowed from private collections for the needs of this exhibition. Along with works in glass, there were also exposed posters of the exhibitions of all 36 contemporary glass exhibitions in MAS. The author of the exhibition and monograph “Man of glass” is Jadranka Belevski, senior documentary, head of Documentation department of the Museum of antique glass in Zadar, graduated Art historian, and graduated archaeologist. The music podium of the exhibition is part of the composer music of Milko Belevski, composed for the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Antique Glass in Zadar, which consists two parts: “Glass Experience” and “2010 Glass Odyssey.” In addition to the “Man of Glass” exhibition, music from “2010 Glass Odyssey” – “Green” and “Blue is reproduced.”
Jadranka Belevski
